A first-time gathering of the nation’s top architectural programmers was orchestrated Dec. 2007 at the Texas A&M College of Architecture by the CRS Center for Leadership and Management in the Design and Construction Industry and the Center for Health Systems & Design.
“It was special, one of the highlights of my stay in the United States, that I was able to interact with very well-known academics and professionals,’ said Carlos Nome, a Ph.D. student in architecture from Brazil who helped organize the gathering.
Luminaries such as William Peña, an Outstanding Alumnus of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture and a pioneer in the field of architectural programming, made presentations at the event, called “The First International Architectural Programming Roundtable.” Also in attendance were Henry Sanoff, Edith Cherry and other top members of the field, who, like Peña, have authored some of architectural programming’s most important books.
Plans for this inaugural gathering of programming experts began during a conversation between Nome and Wei Zhang, a visiting scholar who came to conduct research at the CRS Center, reviewing documents on architectural programming. Zhang is a Ph.D. student at Tsinghua University’s School of Architecture and the associate director of the planning and programming section of the university’s architecture design & research institute.
“He said he wanted to interview William Peña, Henry Sanoff, Wolfgang Preiser, the big names of architectural programming, while he was in the United States,” said Nome, who, in turn, talked with Mark Clayton, interim head of the Department of Architecture, about Zhang’s plans.
Clayton suggested inviting the authors on Zhang’s list for a conference at Texas A&M.
“We were really surprised that everyone attended,” said Nome, considering the authors’ schedules and existing commitments. “After we sent out the invitations, it was really clear that everybody wanted this to happen and everyone decided they wanted to attend.”
Zhang said special moments at the conference occurred, “when Peña and Sanoff debated each other and when other professors argued on a topic and talked about their own ideas. We benefited from the face-to-face communication from all the scholars and experts holding various views and thoughts.”
Although it was a small meeting with attendees from different parts of the world, Zhang said the professors have known or heard of each other for many years.
Weimin Zhuang, a professor of architecture at Tshinghua University and head of its architectural design and research institute, was also at the conference. He was at Texas A&M in the fall 2007 semester as a visiting scholar.
“The attendance of Chinese scholars at the conference helped to bridge Chinese and American research in architectural programming through communication, collaboration and partnership,” said Zhang.
“It was amazing to be able to ask them questions that I probably wouldn’t have answers to without meeting them face to face,” said Nome.
Mardelle Shepley, holder of the William Peña Endowed Professorship in Information Management and director of the Center for Health Systems & Design, also joined the roundtable discussion.
“I especially enjoyed presenting to the group and seeing how much they appreciated the contributions of evidence-based design to programming,” she said.
Nome said the group touched on many aspects of programming, such as the ongoing debate of how a programmer comes to be, or, exactly who is a programmer. They asked, “does it necessarily have to be an architecture student, and what do people expect from this individual that defines what, ultimately, a building is going to be?” said Nome.
The discussion moved on to the teaching of programming in architecture schools and the necessity of tying programming to design studios, he said.
“It would have been nice to have students participating as well,” said Nome of the meeting, which, in addition to the programming authors, was open to faculty members and graduate students.
“It could have been an open session, but the discussions were so specific, unless they really knew architectural programming, people would be lost in the discussions,” said Nome. “We thought it would be better to first let the authors have this closed-door discussion, then at a later date have them come in individually and give lectures to students.”
The gathering also prompted Nome’s own thoughts about architectural programming.
“My perspective is that programming should be a required course in architecture schools and should be an integral part of design studios,” he said. “I think more than anything else, it gives you a base to start thinking about what you’re designing. Without this clear base, anything and everything goes.”
Nome said, Zhuang agreed to host the group’s next meeting, set for 2009 in Beijing.
Those who were on hand for The First International Architectural Programming Roundtable were, front row from left, Edith Cherry, Henry Sanoff, William Peña and Mark Clayton. Second row from left are Weimin Zhuang and Steve Parshall. Third row from left are Carlos Nome, Wei Zhang, and George Mann. Fourth row from left are Jianqun Hou, Wolfgang Preiser, Eberhard Laepple and Kevin Kelly. Back row from left are Bob Johnson and Mardelle Shepley.
Participants exchange ideas during the conference. From left are George Mann, Henry Sanoff, Edith Cherry, William Peña and Weimin Zhuang.
