A new exhibition at MIT Wiesner Student Art Gallery explores the practicalities and play of architectural aging The average lifespan of a house in the United States is between 50 and 63 years, from construction to demolition. For Lauren … Continued
Jaffer Kolb and his collaborators are working to turn architectural waste into shared community infrastructure When Jaffer Kolb, a lecturer in the Department of Architecture at MIT, refers to himself and his collaborators as “garbage people,” he’s talking about the … Continued
Finding Connection in Isolation Through Design How can we be together? This is the question that designer Thomas Heatherwick asks. The winner of the 2020 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT, renowned for his large-scale public projects around the … Continued
“Those things that we do not value, that we do not actively protect, fade away and die,” writes Kevin Baker in “Death of a Once Great City,” an article in Harper’s about New York’s affluence crisis. Baker describes the one-time … Continued
Suspend disgust at the thought of trash; make it a compelling subject for designers and the broader public. That’s Rania Ghosn’s tactic for getting more people to improve our built environment and ask the necessary questions about landfills, oil rigs, … Continued
The Schnitzer Prize was established in 1996 through an endowment from Harold and Arlene Schnitzer of Portland, Oregon. Harold Schnitzer, a real estate investor, graduated from MIT in 1944 with a degree in metallurgy. The prizes—a first prize of $5000, … Continued
Renowned architect David Adjaye visited the MIT campus on several occasions in 2015-16, as part of his Eugene McDermott Award residency. On one of his visits, Adjaye spoke with CAST about a magnificent small building here on campus, the MIT … Continued
Some mixture of encyclopaedic curiosity, revolutionary zeal and noblesse oblige gave rise to public museums in the 18th century. The first of this kind, the British Museum, opened in 1759 with free entry to “all studious and curious persons.” The … Continued
If you think museums are dusty repositories, read on. Meejin Yoon, Professor and Head of MIT Department of Architecture, reminded us at the panel discussion, “Future of the Museum,” “The museum is not just a building, but an institution. As … Continued
MIT Museum Exhibition Highlights What Was New About the New Tech You have probably stared at a blank screen, a white canvas or an empty stage and felt some mixture of anxiety and exhilaration over the prospect of beginning a … Continued
David Adjaye and Other Experts Explore the Future of Libraries “The future happens unevenly. It already exists somewhere,” said Ginnie Cooper. “Some piece of it is already happening. Who can you learn from?,” she counseled at a panel discussion about … Continued
The lyrics to many alma maters celebrate their colleges’ resplendent places—the “hallowed halls” and “time-honored walls,” the surrounding “golden orchards” or “sunlit slopes.” There is no mention of that well-lit basement lab, or secluded corner for thinking and napping, or … Continued
As the MIT 2016 celebrations commence this month, commemorating a century of MIT’s Cambridge campus, we are exploring some of the obscure, overlooked or forgotten pockets of artistic activity at MIT from 1916-2016, beginning with this installment on the Department … Continued
Beyond being a book repository, the ancient Library of Alexandria was a working resource for scholars. Joined physically to the Mouseion—a Greek word meaning a place where the Muses are active—the library contained a lecture hall (exedra), a refectory for … Continued
Award includes $100K prize, artist residency, gala and four public programs at MIT Architect David Adjaye OBE receives the 2016 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT. The $100K prize awarded at a gala in his honor also includes an … Continued
Forget the balsa wood and foam core of yesterday’s design classes. Students in Skylar Tibbits’s innovative studio course are using everything from gummy bears to glass to rubber to foam, to create three-dimensional representations of the generative drawings they produced … Continued
With his canvas stretched on the floor, Jackson Pollock dipped brushes or sticks into paint cans; then he drew in the air, dripping paint on the canvas, hovering, leaning, lunging, and gesturing here and there with varying speed. His pace, … Continued
For Joel Leivick, the Carrara marble quarries — the place where Michelangelo obtained the stone from which he liberated his David — represent a complex geological and cultural terrain. Laura Volkerding’s silver gelatin prints document centuries old craft workshops for … Continued