PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Echos

1. Wikipedia. (n.d.). “Echos”. Accessed Feb. 18 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echos. Echos (Greek: ἦχος [ˈixos] "sound"; pl. echoi ἦχοι [ˈiçi], Old Church Slavonic: гласъ [glasŭ] "voice, sound") is the name in Byzantine music theory for a mode within the eight mode system (oktoechos), each of them ruling several melody types, and it is used in the melodic and rhythmic composition of Byzantine chant ("thesis of the melos"), differentiated according to the chant genre and according to the performance style ("method of the thesis"). It is akin to a Western medieval tonus, an Andalusian tab', an Arab naġam (since 1400 "maqam"), or a Persian parde (since 18th century dastgah).
e·chos
noun \ ˈi-(ˌ)kōs \

2. Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). “Echos”. Accessed Feb 18 2018. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/echo. Plural of echo, also echoes.
e·cho
noun \ ˈe-(ˌ)kō \

1 a : the repetition of a sound caused by reflection of sound waves
b : the sound due to such reflection
2 a : a repetition or imitation of another : reflection
b : repercussion, result
c : trace, vestige
d : response
3 : one who closely imitates or repeats another's words, ideas, or acts
4 : a soft repetition of a musical phrase
5 a : the repetition of a received radio signal due especially to reflection of part of the wave from an ionized layer of the atmosphere
b (1) : the reflection of transmitted radar signals by an object
(2) : the visual indication of this reflection on a radarscope

In general, the term echos means sound or voice. In music, the concept refers to a chant sang in dialogue by a choir. This melodic structure has specific hierarchy, notes, and intonations. Although not as popular, echos has also become an increasingly accepted plural form of the noun echo. The spelling echoes is however more commonly found.

The publication ECHOS synthesizes the work done at the University of Cincinnati, School of Architecture and Interior Design, marked by moments of compression and release in our curriculum, which revolves around traditional semester-long sessions and co-op (curriculum-based paid internships) semesters. This publication provides an intimate look at our students’ intricate path at the School of Architecture and Interior Design, emphasizing our unique approach to research and practical experience. Co-ops semesters at firms including Studio Gang, DIGSAU, MAD Architects, Kennedy Violich Architects, SOM, Gensler, Eisenman Architects, and OMA weave with a year round schedule of classes. Our top-ranked Interior Design, undergraduate graduate and graduate architectural programs all complete a thesis or Capstone research project giving every student the opportunity to find their own voice.

Indexing student and faculty work, co-op stories, and snapshots from several events, the book places the reader in the midst of Peter Eisenman’s famous Grand Staircase, the living room of the Aronoff Center for Design and Art, where the many student and faculty voices form a multilayered chorus of one of the most vibrant and diverse design schools in North America. Part of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, the program benefits from its affiliations with industrial design, fashion design, communication design, art, landscape architecture, and urbanism. The opportunistic dialogue that inevitably influences the studio environment happens irrespective of disciplinary boundaries. This relaxes what might become an otherwise dogmatic curricular agenda, breeds new taxonomies and asks questions such as Amanda Lo’s thesis found in Utopia, “Do buildings dream of swallowed futures?” which elicit a ludic, nevertheless investigative attitude towards architecture and education.

Events like the ACADIA 2015 conference transformed the city in an architectural hub and included notable speakers like Nader Tehrani, amid.cero9, KieranTimberlake, Achim Menges, Francois Roche, Branko Kolarevic. Lectures with important architects like Neil Denari or Craig Dykers add to our discussion. The chance for students to exhibit work outside the school at SOFA Chicago or the ICFF, and study abroad in Paris, Turkey, India, and China help perpetuate an international dialogue.

The SAID faculty is composed of diverse scholars whose research spans across sustainability, design-build, digital fabrication, community outreach, computation, architectural robotics, history, archeology, and theory. The unique environment in which our school is set, including its award winning architecture campus, is a crucible for architectural discourse that contains a multiplicity of academic opportunities.

Various constellations chart our diverse academic and social interactions that revolve around the book’s five main themes: anxiety, praxis, trope, chreod, and utopia. Introduced by a series of analytical diagrams which are paired up with essays by lead figures in the discipline who have critically shaped the school at some point in time, the themes expand on the issues of theoretical anxiety, architectural discourse, practice, typology, analogies, and ad hoc morphologies inherent to research. Flux and reflux return each disruption to a steady trajectory similar to the academic cycle of compression and release generated by the real world realties of the co-op program and the fictitious and ideal nature of the academic studio.

Anxiety, introduced by Peter Zellner, collects and synthesizes multiple contradicting theories that entertain with equanimity various solutions to design problems. Praxis, introduced by Victoria Meyers, looks at outcomes—physical, prototypical, digital or analog, multi-dimensional and multi-media, spoken, written or unwritten—as well as working methodologies that shape design thinking. Trope, introduced by Aaron Betsky, maps out trends, emergent ideologies, and design expressions. Chreod, introduced by Edward Mitchell, documents and interprets field conditions, rule-based processes, issues of transgressions, non-smooth and nomadic entities that cut across arbolic-like divisions. Utopia, introduced by Peter Waldman, while suspending various otherwise necessary constraints, allows for a euphoric and unapologetically optimistic view of the world, with the goal of envisioning daring possibilities otherwise unimaginable. Utopia, therefore, prefigures all other themes and is the ambition and imaginary locus of the multiple programs and opportunities at the School of Architecture and Interior Design at the University of Cincinnati.

BOOK INFORMATION

Trim Size: 6.50 x 8.25 in.

Number of Pages: 406

Binding Method:

Paper:

Typefaces: Akzidenz-Grotesk

CREDIT INFORMATION

Creative Director: Mara Marcu

Art Director: Mara Marcu

Book Designer: Mara Marcu (University of Cincinnati DAAP SAID)

Jacket/Cover Designer: Kyle Winston (University of Cincinnati DAAP SAID)

Illustrator: Mara Marcu with Student Editors

Photographer: University of Cincinnati - School of Architecture and Interior Design Authors

Picture Editor: Mara Marcu

Production Director: Mara Marcu

Production Coordinator: Mara Marcu

Production Artist: Mara Marcu with Student Editors

Other Credits: Editor: Mara Marcu // Student Editors: Kyle Winston, Alan Alaniz, Chas Wiederhold, Christina Tefend, Jamie Kruer, John Meyer, Anjana Sivakumar, Erin Klein, Daham Marapane, Michael Sullivan, Brady Ginn, Seher Hashmi, Gael Perichon, Farshad Khalighinejad, Kristin Moreno, and Garcia Ghislaine // Editorial Board: Edward Mitchell, Udo Greinacher, Elizabeth Riorden, Edson Cabalfin // Graphic Design: Mara Marcu with Student Editors // Copy Editor: Gabriela Sarhos

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