Historically, research and creative practice have been constructed as “opposites.” This is not an unusual struggle in architecture schools, particularly in the context of a research university.

Since its inception in 2009, the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning’s Research Through Making grants enable faculty to engage in architecture research or creative projects that are predicated on making. Seed funding is competitively awarded annually for up to five projects. Faculty collaborate with students to produce projects that ultimately lead to a public exhibition in the Liberty Annex Gallery. Through the years as the projects have evolved, the research has broadened and many have gone on to win national awards (P/A Awards, R+D Awards, ACSA Awards, AIA awards, etc.) and be published, presented and exhibited throughout the world.

Research Through Making is one of the most innovative architecture research programs in the country, and provides important funding that allows students to work with faculty on innovative research projects and bring that knowledge back to the classroom and into their futures as designers.

The five projects, which will be on view at the Taubman Liberty Research Annex Gallery  (305 W. Liberty, Ann Arbor) until May 6, 2018, were selected by a distinguished jury:

• Adam Yarinsky, Principal, Architecture Research Office, New York
• Joyce Hwang, Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Planning, University at Buffalo, New York; Director, Ants of the Prairie
• Scott Marble, Professor and William H. Harrison Chair of the School of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology; Founding Partner, Marble Fairbanks

Projects

Announced by interim dean Robert Fishman on May 5, 2017, the following faculty projects were awarded seed funding in the ninth annual Research Through Making grant program:

Catenary Concrete Funicular Formwork
Jonathan Rule, Ana Morcillo Pallares

 

Elemental | Ornamental
Wes McGee, Asa Peller

 

Hard + Soft: Robotic Needle Felting for Nonwoven Textiles
Tsz Yan Ng, Wes McGee, Asa Peller

 

Image Matters
McLain Clutter, Cyrus Peñarroyo

 

Limb: Rethinking Heavy Timber Joinery through Analysis of Tree Crotches
Peter von Buelow, Steven Mankouche, Kasey Vliet