A&AA welcomed Bruce Mau and Kristina Ljubanovic from Bruce Mau Design, Mehrdad Yazdani from Cannon Design, and Cormac Deavy from ARUP. Bruce presented the Draft Vision for A&AA at three sessions. Bruce delivered the same presentation to different audiences and stakeholders during the day. We decided that you’d like to see it for yourself, so visit the podcast via the link below. We have summarized the Q&A that followed each session. See the video podcast for presentation. Click here.

Executive Session with President Lariviere

9:00-10:30 a.m.

Johnson Hall Conference Room

This briefing by Bruce Mau Design team members included UO President Richard Lariviere, Provost Jim Bean, and other UO senior administrators—Robin Holmes, Frances Dyke, Michael Redding, Chris Ramey, and Development office personnel— Michael Andreasen and Jan Lariviere and A&AA Board of Visitors members—Julie Stott, Cheryl Zahniser, Herman D’Hooge, Peter Lawrence, and Ann Edlen.

Edited Transcript of Q&A Session

Transcripts from the other two presentations will be posted shortly

Thanks to everyone who tuned in to the video stream of Bruce Mau’s presentation. It was a very exciting day for A&AA! If you missed the event, or just want to see it again, you can still watch the video here. It will play best on Firefox for Mac users and Internet Explorer for PC users.

Over the noon hour, an open all–school Skype presentation and Q&A with Bruce Mau was held in Lillis Hall room 182. Participants from the A&AA community participating in the workshops attended as well as students, faculty and staff from across the school and university.

Two reporters covered the event with a broadcast on Twitter that could be viewed in Lawrence Hall, on the Internet, and in the lecture room. Milo Petruziello and John Fenn produced live content that summarized the discussion and the questions and ideas from the conversation with Bruce Mau. Interested participants could view the discussion live on the A&AAvisioning site. The transcript of the tweets can be viewed on the blog.

Fifty people were in attendance at the presentation. A pdf copy of his presentation can be found in the Documents section of the AAAvisioning site.

Edited Transcript

Twitter Feed Archive

The afternoon workshop was structured the same way as the morning workshop. Participants got the same introduction to the process and were asked to perform the same exercises. The only difference in the opening presentation was the showing of the video that Bruce Mau Design did for Arizona State’s communications plan. It was a very lively session. Participants had a lot of fun with the exercises, in particular, the New York Times headline prompt. The discussions following each exercise were very active; there were many passionate voices in the room with a diversity of opinions regarding the future of the school. This transcript and the accompanying photo galleries are meant to provide insights into the process the workshop, the nature of the discussion, and the emerging themes.

Mapping Collaborations

The morning workshop started with presentation by Kristina Ljubanovic of Bruce Mau Design that clarified the goals and methodology of the visioning process and updated BMD’s progress. Bruce Mau Design and its partners, Yazdani Studio/Cannon Design and ARUP, introduced themselves and what they do. Yazdani Studio/Cannon Design articulated a vision of transformative environments trying to keep people interested in the world. ARUP has a holistic design vision and seeks to design a future that that is enmeshed in technology. Bruce Mau Design called themselves researchers, facilitators and storytellers; they design processes that lead to new ways of thinking about institutions. A pdf copy of the PowerPoint presentation for this introduction can be found in the Documents section of the AAAVisioning blog. Workshop participants included A&AA faculty, staff and students from multiple disciplines, they were broken into five assigned tables of five or six people and given three exercises to complete. Exercises included mapping collaborations, writing an A&AA manifesto, and imagining a future New York Times headline. As groups completed each exercise they were asked to post their results on the walls and then present to the larger group. Participants were very engaged throughout the workshop and had a lot of fun with the exercises, in particular, the manifesto. This transcript and the accompanying photo galleries are meant to provide insights into the process of the workshop, the nature of the discussion, and the themes that emerged.

Mapping Collaborations

A&AA Manifesto

New York Times Headline

Can’t make it to the conversation in 182 Lillis Hall? Follow it here via Twitter from 12:30-1:50.

The AAA Student Advisory Committee has departmental representatives that advise the dean on issues that affect the school’s student body. They also manage funds for the Student Travel grants and support a variety of initiatives each year. As part of the study project, students were asked about the school’s environment, campus and community relationships, and how facilities could impact learning in the school. They generated a number of creative questions around how to capture and retain the quirky and creative culture of the school.

Edited Transcript

This session included tenured faculty members from the department of architecture and the department of landscape architecture. They shared common experiences about the collegial work environment, commitment to sustainability, and the aspiration that the school continue to be a place that nurtures its students and faculty members. Research as well as teaching are important activities to the school and integrating space needs rather than giving research space only the leftovers would be desired. Bringing closer connection to planning, public administration and art would be goal for future building. A&AA should continue to build community and foster interdisciplarity which is an important value for the school and its environment/culture.

Edited Transcript

This drop in session included staff and faculty members from A&AA dean’s office and the Department of Art. Participants responded to questions about the character of the school, relationships with the community, and interest in supporting students with facilities that support digital and hands-on, studio-based learning.

Edited Transcript

This session included two professors from Architecture, one professor from Planning, Public Policy and Management, and a non-tenure-track faculty member from the Community Service Center. The Bruce Mau interviewers were Laura Stein, and Christina Bagatavicius. Some of the emerging themes included the importance of A&AA’s focus on sustainability; the need to create a space that facilitates interdisciplinary values through formal and informal interaction; the necessity for A&AA to become more visible national and internationally; and problems created by having some programs in different buildings and, in some cases, off campus.

Edited Transcript