Excerpt: Radical Practice: The Work of Marlon Blackwell Architects, released in May 2022 by Princeton Architectural Press

CEUs

1 LU

Cost

$5

AIA, AFC, ASHRE, 2030 District, CNU Midwest, Green Umbrella, NOMA, ULI Cincinnati, and USGBC Members

$15

Non-Members

Free

Full-time students

Location

21c Hotel

Program Overview

Advance registration required before 3pm on August 11.

Marlon Blackwell will discuss his architecture and design process and will introduce ‘Radical Practice: The Work of Marlon Blackwell Architects’ a new monograph to be released in May 2022 by Princeton Architectural Press. Both the book and the lecture emphasize projects in the public and civic realm, emerging from outside the established centers of architectural culture, illustrating the distinct and original voice of Marlon Blackwell Architects.

Their iconic and award-winning designs span across typologies, scales, and budgets, by merging the universal language of architecture and the particulars of place. The lecture will discuss the richness of the work, its methods, and its consequences and suggest an open-endedness, at once generous and provocative, to the practice’s trajectory and interest in what a “radical practice” can be in the contemporary moment. A core principle at the heart of the practice, radical in its fundamental simplicity, is the assertion of the making of buildings and places as a constant, authentic focus.

Learning Objectives

• Recognize the capacity of small regional firms, located outside the centers of fashion, to produce design excellence in buildings of all scales that are economically and environmentally responsive, providing architectural diversity and civic dignity at a national level.

• Distinguish social, economic, and environmental benefits of high-performance adaptive reuse design as an essential preservation strategy, for the development of sustainable communities, using three sample course adaptive reuse projects that incorporate both renovations and additions to existing building structures.

• Define the role of topography, site drainage, local ecologies, and accessibility (pedestrian and vehicular) to modify and transform existing conventions for building organizational strategies that lead to economically resourceful and sustainable permutations of building form and construction assemblies.

• Describe the relationship between building articulation systems (brise soleil, porches, canopies, etc.), site water management, and sustainable material assemblies and the generation of building typologies that are more adaptive and environmentally responsive to the specificities of a place and region.

Keynote Speaker

Marlon Blackwell, FAIA

Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, is a practicing architect in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and the E. Fay Jones Distinguished Professor at the University of Arkansas. Blackwell is the recipient of the 2020 AIA Gold Medal, the Institute’s highest honor recognizing those whose work has had an enduring impact on the theory and practice of architecture. Blackwell is a lifetime member of the American Academy of Arts and National Academy of Design Academician, a 2019 Resident Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, and a 2014 United States Artists Ford Fellow. Work produced in his professional office, Marlon Blackwell Architects (MBA), has received recognition with significant publication and more than 160 design awards including the 2016 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture. A monograph of Marlon’s early work, “An Architecture of the Ozarks: The Works of Marlon Blackwell”, was published in 2005 and a new monograph titled “Radical Practice”, is set for publication in 2022.

Continuing Education Details

Course Number: VL2022.g

Instructional Delivery Method: live

AIA CES Program Approval Expiration Date: 6/17/2025

Prerequisites: none

Program Level: beginner

Advance Learner Preparation: none

AIA CES Provider Statement

AIA Cincinnati is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number 088. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES (cessupport@aia.org or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.