California College of the Arts
Architecture Division
On Zoom, register to attend here.
This event is free and open to the public.
This book launch celebrates the publication of two books by the Urban Works Agency: Apocalypse Now! and Designing a Just City. Join María Arquero de Alarcón, Carrie Denning Jackson, Ming Thompson, John Bela, and Benjamin Grant; editors Chris Roach, Christina Cho Yoo, and Janette Kim; and student authors to explore what it takes to make the city open: open to interpretation, open for business, open for self-determination, and open as public space. These two books reveal inventive design techniques by which architects can collaborate with interdisciplinary partners to reshape the city as a commons, from the ground up.
Apocalypse Now! Project for the Post Retail City: Rethinking the Ground Floor investigates the “Retail Apocalypse” as an opportunity to both rethink commercial environments, and to experiment with new forms—of property, governance, access, and space—that can reshape their relationship to the public sphere. The book collects a series of rigorous case studies and design proposals which rethink the ground floor as a site for the production and support of social infrastructure, generated by students in Christopher Roach and Christina Cho Yoo’s spring 2020 Apocalypse Now studio. Link to Full Digital Copy.
Designing a Just City: How Architecture Reshapes Property, Equity, Ecology and Economy asks how architecture can intervene into systemic sites of power—Property, Equity, Ecology and Economy—to open them to a more equitable distribution of resources and opportunities. This book was created by students in Janette Kim’s spring 2020 Urban Imaginaries seminar at CCA, and presents interpretive drawings of twelve architectural case studies, from Charles Fourier’s Phalanstère to Alejandro Aravena’s Casa Quinta Monroy. Link to Full Digital Copy.
SCHEDULE:
12:00pm Welcome + Introduction
Janette Kim and Chris Roach, CCA
12:15pm Panel discussion on Apocalypse Now!
Carrie Denning Jackson, Sidewalk Labs
Ming Thompson, Atelier Cho Thompson
John Bela, Gehl
Benjamin Grant
moderated by Christina Cho Yoo, Atelier Cho Thompson
1:00pm Interpretations of Designing a Just City
María Arquero de Alarcón, University of Michigan
1:20pm Conversation
All panelists and students moderated by Janette Kim and Chris Roach
CREDITS:
Apocalypse Now! Project for the Post Retail City: Rethinking the Ground Floor was edited by Christopher Roach and Christina Cho Yoo with Donna Mena, designed by Duy Nguyen, and created by students at the California College of Arts Architecture Division: James Ayling, Elliot Gorman, Donna Mena, Maria Ramirez Perez, Abby Rockwell, Sharan Saboji, Elmer Wang, Xiao Xiao, Wan Yan, and Elida Zavala.
Designing a Just City was edited by Janette Kim and created by students at the California College of Arts Architecture Division: Alhakam Alaedh, James Ayling, Pietro Carini, Celdin Fajardo, Shih Ting Huang, Jennifer Jimenez, Thomas Krulevitch, Lori Martinez, Donna Mena, Kurt Pelzer, Sharan Saboji, Sayer Al Sayer, Jose Trujillo, and Elmer Wang. Research Assistance by Carlos Medellin.
SPEAKER BIOS:
María Arquero de Alarcón is an associate professor of architecture and urban and regional planning and the director of the master of urban design at the University of Michigan Taubman College. Her work advances urban strategies promoting cultural and environmental values in territories under conditions of scarcity. María leads MAde Studio, a research-based, collaborative design practice that offers integrated expertise in architecture, landscape, and urbanism. Through a combination of grant-funded research initiatives, urban design experimentation, and site-specific interventions, MAde Studio focuses on the co-generation of socio-spatial strategies addressing urban transformation in collaboration with local partners and residents.
John Bela is an urbanist and public space designer. He combines a background in art, science and environmental design to create vibrant, dynamic, and resilient urban human habitats. A pioneer in user-generated urbanism, John has successfully completed many projects that involve radical new formulations of social space. John is a Senior Lecturer at the California College of Arts in San Francisco and a Distinguished Lecturer at UC Berkeley. He holds degrees in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design, Biochemistry, and Sculpture.
Christina Cho Yoo is co-founder of Atelier Cho Thompson. She received a BS & MS in civil & structural engineering and construction management at Stanford University and received a masters in architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She was a structural engineer at the international engineering company Arup, where she was the Structural Sustainability Champion for the Americas & worked on projects such as the LEED-Double Platinum California Academy of Sciences, UC-Davis Veterinary Medicine facilities, UCSC Engineering Building, Kaiser hospitals, Schroder Overcrossing, and various other projects. She went onto work at architecture firms worldwide including Kao Design Group on Richard Branson's Eco-Island, SHoP Architects on the Google HQ, Neri & Hu in Shanghai, Mass Studies in Seoul, and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson on Apple stores, the Apple iAd office, and the Square HQ. Christina is a licensed architect and engineer in California.
Benjamin Grant is a Bay Area urban designer, writer, teacher and curator. He works at the intersection of physical planning, policy, public space. As the Urban Design Policy Director of the policy think tank SPUR, he led numerous research efforts and planning processes, including the Ocean Beach Master Plan, an award-winning interagency climate adaptation strategy for San Francisco's ocean coast, currently in implementation. Other publications include Rethinking the Corporate Campus, and Getting to Great Places, and the SPUR Regional Strategy, a 50-year vision for a more equitable, sustainable, and prosperous Bay Area.
Janette Kim is a designer, researcher, and educator whose work focuses on the intersection between ecology, social equity and the built environment. Janette is assistant professor and director of Urban Works Agency at California College of the Arts, founding principal of All of the Above, and founding editor of ARPA Journal. Janette is author of The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform. Her projects include the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge, the Win-Win board game series, a boutique hotel in Sichuan, Safari audio tours on urban ecology, Pinterest Headquarters, National AIDS Memorial, and the Fall Kill Creek Master Plan.
Carrie Denning Jackson creates built environments that are designed for people and grounded in place. In 2016, Jackson joined Google's urban innovation company, Sidewalk Labs. she currently leads innovation on ground floor spaces, re-imagining the physical/digital experience of shops, restaurants, small businesses, and the community and cultural spaces that make cities great. Jackson was Sidewalk’s Chief of Staff for two years, launching the company from 14 to 100+ urban-technologists and launched our workshop/lab in Toronto, 307. Prior to Sidewalk Labs, she led on-the-ground placemaking for Shared_Studios, an art organization that created curated experiences between strangers in "portals" (golden shipping containers) in cities across the world. Jackson launched the San Francisco Portal and curated live experiences between cities, in addition to installations at the UN and Art Basel Miami.
Chris Roach Director Christopher A. Roach is a San Francisco-based architect and urbanist with over 18 years of experience in the profession and a deep commitment to its craft and intellectual ambition. He is founder and principal of Studio VARA, and has engaged with a wide range of projects types, from custom residences and affordable housing to commercial offices and academic institutions. He holds a B.Arch. with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin, and M.Arch in Urban Design with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Ming Thompson is co-founder of Atelier Cho Thompson. She received a BS & MS in civil & structural engineering and construction management at Stanford University and received a masters in architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She was a structural engineer at the international engineering company Arup, where she was the Structural Sustainability Champion for the Americas & worked on projects such as the LEED-Double Platinum California Academy of Sciences, UC-Davis Veterinary Medicine facilities, UCSC Engineering Building, Kaiser hospitals, Schroder Overcrossing, and various other projects. She went onto work at architecture firms worldwide including Kao Design Group on Richard Branson's Eco-Island, SHoP Architects on the Google HQ, Neri & Hu in Shanghai, Mass Studies in Seoul, and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson on Apple stores, the Apple iAd office, and the Square HQ. Christina is a licensed architect and engineer in California.