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Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
Third-year architecture students at Texas A&M will collaborate on residential design projects this spring with architects from two internationally acclaimed firms as part of the inaugural Mitchell Lab Visiting Designer Program.
The lab, a pilot project characterized as an extremely rigorous residential design studio, was made possible with funds from the $2.3 million Mitchell Initiative, a gift funded by the Bryan N. Mitchell family, owners of History Maker Homes in Fort Worth. In its inaugural semester, the lab will bring noted designers Wonnie Ickx and Carlos Bedoya, two of the founding members of PRODUCTORA, a Mexico City-based firm, and Tom Wiscombe, principal of the Los Angeles firm, EMERGENT, to work extensively with aspiring Aggie design students.
During their visit, Ickx and Bedoya will discuss their work at PRODUCTORA in a public lecture set for 5:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 7 in the Preston Geren Auditorium, located in Room 102 of the Langford Architecture Center’s building B. The rest of their time will be spent mentoring the Mitchell Lab students as designers-in-residence Feb. 7 – 14, when they kick off the project, and March 2 – 6, when they return to monitor progress and see it to fruition.
PRODUCTORA does a lot of residential work and some high-rises,” said Gabriel Esquivel, assistant professor of architecture and director of the inaugural Mitchell Lab. “They’ve won competitions in Latin America, including a high-rise in Caracas, Venezuela.”
According to its online company profile, PRODUCTORA views architecture as a response to a concrete problem, a situation of transformation. Instead of intense research into other disciplines, the group embarks on an architectural investigation through formal, spatial and tectonic interests.
Esquivel said Ickz, Bedoya and the students will develop a residential housing prototype with an emphasis on using the technologies available to students, including the facilities at the College of Architecture’s Digital Fabrication Facility at Texas A&M’s Riverside Campus.
“One of our interests for the Mitchell Lab was to work with designers from Latin America, a firm that’s unique and interesting,” said Esquivel.
PRODUCTORA’s work was presented at the second architectural Biennale in Beijing in 2006. The firm earned awards at the Architectural League’s Young Architect’s Forum in New York in 2007, the 44 Young Architects exhibition in Barcelona in 2007 and the Venice Biennale in 2008.
Noted by the New York Times as an “up and coming” design firm, a PRODUCTORA design was featured in a 2008 Times feature on residential designs for a Chinese tycoon’s billion dollar development.
The Mitchell Lab students will gain a new design guru this April, when Tom Wiscombe, founder of EMERGENT, helps launch a new studio project. Wiscombe’s Los Angeles-based firm is internationally known for operating at the forefront of digital design. EMERGENT’s work is driven by models of biology and computation, as well as by contemporary design sensibilities.
The May 2009 issue of ICON Magazine called Wiscombe “one of the top 20 architects in the world who are making the future and transforming the way we work."
“Wiscombe will work with students on a residential design prototype that will likely be a little more extreme in its pursuits,” said Esquivel.
These Mitchell Lab projects, he said, will emphasize collaboration, technology and the continued development of internal criteria about what the college does with digital technology.
In keeping with the Mitchell family’s vision, the aim of the lab is to revolutionize teaching in residential construction and design at Texas A&M University. The lab project combines funds from the History Maker Homes Residential Studio, which was established by the Mitchells, with partial funding made available through two other Mitchell Family endowments: the Sandy and Bryan Mitchell Master Builder Chair, held by Jorge Vanegas, dean of the College of Architecture, and the Liz and Nelson Mitchell Professorship, held by Mark Clayton, associate professor of architecture.
“This is an opportunity to give back to the university that has given so much to us and our industry,” said Bryan N. Mitchell Sr. ’70, CEO of History Maker Homes, when his family established the $2.3 million Mitchell Initiative benefiting the Texas A&M College of Architecture and Mays Business School. “This is the best thing we can do to encourage young people interested in building tomorrow’s communities.”
- Posted: Feb. 11, 2011 -
Contact: Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.
