professing architecture: connecting architecture, culture, and spirituality (exhibit)

Professing Architecture: Connecting Architecture, Culture, and Spirituality (EXHIBIT at the District Architecture Center AIA-DC, Washington DC, Feb 2014) Students work produced under the direction of Associate Professor Julio Bermudez, Dean Randall Ott, and 2013 Walton Critic architect Claudio Silvestrin The Catholic University of America School of Architecture and Planning (Washington, DC) For more info visit: http://faculty.cua.edu/bermudez/courses/bermudez-silvestrin/

Board / Project 1 of 7

Professing Architecture: Connecting Architecture, Culture, and Spirituality Framework & Attitude Professing architecture today is not easy. The challenges we face as individuals, society, and professionals are urgent and seemingly overwhelming: consumerism; population growth and migratory pressures; growing global inequality; terrorism; religious fundamentalism and xenophobia; technological breakthroughs of uncertain, yet significant impact; and global warming and climate change. Architecture – the art of establishing the material order of a cultural order – cannot avoid this reality; it must reflect and respond. Indeed, professing architecture is no light matter in these circumstances. True professing demands that we hold a position, stand for something, and make a vow in the name of a deep-seated passion for architecture, our fellow beings, and the earth. Professing also requires responding technically and competently to architectural challenges. Professing is where belief and knowledge come together in the here and now of present reality. The Work This exhibition features eight speculative projects by graduate and undergraduate students of the Catholic University of America School of Architecture and Planning’s Sacred Space and Cultural Studies (SSCS) Studio. The studio, instructed by Associate Professor Julio Bermudez, Ph.D., Dean Randall Ott, AIA and 2013 Walton Critic Claudio Silvestrin, explored today’s architectural professing using three projects as pedagogical vehicles to study the spiritual, cultural, and embodied dimensions of architecture: a National Immigration Museum on the Mall, a Homeless Shelter in Chinatown, and a Nursery/Kindergarten in Downtown Washington, DC. The premise for the National Immigration Museum project was to consider the architectural implications of a building or structure, one dedicated to a quintessentially American story, in a space considered sacred like the National Mall. The Homeless Shelter project aimed to support the multifunctional needs of the homeless and other at-risk persons through spiritual and uplifting design elements. The Nursery/Kindergarten project addressed the educational needs of young learners in the most comprehensive way through enlightened and thoughtful design strategies. The Studio The Sacred Space and Cultural Studies (SSCS) concentration is offered at the Catholic University of America School of Architecture and Planning. It is one of very few programs in the world where architecture graduate students, faculty, and professionals can reflect, learn, research, and profess the deepest spiritual and cultural roots of place-making. In this particular studio, the renowned Italian-born, London-based architect Claudio Silvestrin guided the studio’s pedagogic and ideological path by focusing on design processes that encourage contemplative, intuitive, and non-egotist methods of inquiry, criticism, and architectural propositioning. The work presented in this exhibit was produced during the Fall Semester 2013. Works in the Exhibition

Depth of Discovery (National Immigration Museum) Eric Hofmann and Matthew Schmalzel

Culmination of Commonality (National Immigration Museum) Christopher Motley and Kristen Weller Revealing American Roots (National Immigration Museum) Erica Donnelly and Marisa Aschettino Conversing with Divinity (Nursery/Kindergarten) John Allen and Ana Román Andrino Lost and Regained (Homeless Educating Center) Amirali Ebadi and Robin Munoz Valencia Giving the Homeless a Hand-Up, Not a Handout (Homeless Shelter) Nicholas Darin Spirit-Driven Community (Urban Dweller’s Habitat) Jorge Cornet Solitude, Friendship, Society (DC Resource Center for the Homeless) Chris Urban

Acknowledgements Claudio Silvestrin’s residence as the 2013 Walton Critic was made possible in part by the Clarence Walton Fund for Catholic Architecture. While the exhibit displays work done by fifteen individuals, there are other students whose effort should be also recognized. The architectural studio functions as a communal environment that establishes the creative and critical context within which all design work unfolds among all the studio participants. We thereby acknowledge the other 10 students that participated in the studio:

Graduate students Lillian Heryak; Lisa Nucera; Toni Lem; and Christine Parisi. Undergraduate students Christopher Derks; Pamela Eggerton; Christie Melgar; Emily O'Loughlin; Timothy Rutten; and Adam Schroth.

Sponsorship This exhibition is made possible by the Catholic University of America School of Architecture and Planning in cooperation with the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Additional support generously provided by ABC Imaging

professing architecture: connecting architecture, culture, and spirituality (exhibit)

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