Clearing the Air with Biomaterials

Can building materials make indoor air healthier? That’s the goal of research co-led by Assistant Professor of Architecture Laia Mogas-Soldevila (left), the director of the DumoLab at Weitzman, that was recently on display at Penn’s Institute of Contemporary Art. With Senseable Biomaterials for Healthy Habitats, or SENSBIOM, her team is exploring the antimicrobial, air-clearing qualities of architectural biomaterials. “We were excited that it was a pleasant smell, had been historically mapped to human health, and could contribute to air quality,” Mogas-Soldevila says.

‘Before Central Park’ and More Spring 2023 Lectures

The Spring 2023 lecture series includes a symposium on the intersections of design, race, and climate change in Philadelphia housing; a panel discussion with the curators of the spring Architectural Archives exhibition Minerva Parker Nichols: The Search for a Forgotten Architect; and a talk on the hidden histories of New York’s Central Park. The series begins on Wednesday, January 18, with Casey Mack in conversation with Ariel Genadt and Ivan Rupnik on Mack’s new book Digesting Metabolism: Artificial Land in Japan 1954-2202.

Top Prize for Dubbeldam

The Gongshu Canal Sports Park Project in Hangzhou, China, designed by Archi-Tectonics, the firm of Miller Professor and Chair of Architecture Winka Dubbeldam, in collaboration with melk! and Thornton Tomasetti, has been awarded a China Construction Engineering Luban Prize. The project was designed for the 19th Asian Games, which will be held in September of this year.

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Charting Architectural Ideals Over Time

The Story of Architecture, a new publication by Witold Rybczynski, the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor Emeritus of Urbanism, has been published by Yale University Press.

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Met Appointment for Solomon

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has named Sosena Solomon, lecturer in fine arts, as research associate. Solomon, a documentary filmmaker, will be creating new digital and in-gallery content that will reframe the Museum’s African art galleries.

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National Mall Commissions 6 Artists for Monument Exhibition

Next summer, a project co-curated by Paul Farber, senior research scholar at Weitzman’s Center for Public Art & Space and artistic director and co-founder of Monument Lab, will transform the National Mall in Washington.

The New York Times

What does the future hold for the Tanner House? Historic preservation grad students have ideas.

Weitzman students are helping secure the future of the childhood home of the artist Henry O. Tanner (1859–1937), who earned international acclaim after studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

A look back at the year in Nashville music news

PennPraxis, the applied research, engagement, and practice arm of the Weitzman School, is embarking on a long-discussed study to stabilize its tumultuous live music industry.

AXIOS Nashville

Safe Harbor, Fitful Prospects

In The Sanctuary City: Immigrant, Refugee, and Receiving Communities in Postindustrial Philadelphia, Associate Professor of City & Regional Planning Domenic Vitiello explores how Philadelphia has repelled, attracted, and been reinvigorated by refugees.

The Pennsylvania Gazette

Design and Planning Across Megaregions

Dean and Paley Professor Fritz Steiner talks to the Rural Futures Collaborative about the role of planning in shaping domestic policy, the opportunity for professional associations in rural communities, and land aesthetics.

Rural Dialogues

Meet the Man Who Brought the Boulevard Subway Back from the Dead

Research by Jay Arzu, a doctoral candidate in city and regional planning, has put an unbuilt project back on the map.

Philadelphia Magazine

New finds 'a really big win,' rare earths developer says

Oscar Serpell, associate director of academic programming and student engagement for the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, discusses the future of mining of rare earth elements, which are needed for regenerative brakes for hybrid cars.

Casper Star Tribune

Density mapping with binning and Wurman dots

The making of a pioneering system for visualizing population density by alum Richard Saul Wurman (BArch’58, MArch’59) is retold.

ArcGIS Blog

Why this entrepreneur is carrying 1,000 lanterns to Ukraine

Alum Alice Min Soo Chun (MArch’91), delivered 1,000 self-inflatable, portable solar lights to children in hospitals in the Ukraine.

MSNBC