William Massie, architect-in-residence and head of the architecture department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., will present the Abend Family Lecture at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2, for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.
The free talk — part of the school’s fall Public Lecture Series — takes place in Steinberg Hall Auditorium
Massie’s talk comes as the conclusion to the Sam Fox School’s fall open house, an all-day event that gives prospective students an opportunity to meet with current students and faculty and to learn firsthand about Sam Fox School programs.
Massie, who also serves as professor of architecture at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., is known for utilizing computer applications and digital information as a way of redefining the idea of the “formal architectural construct.”
For example, plans for his celebrated American House 08 — the first in a series of 10 prefabricated houses — were generated using a computer numerically controlled machine, which can cut into solid materials with an accuracy that is within a thousandth of an inch of the architect’s drawings.
This enabled Massie to design the building, in part, at full scale and to construct it in “real-time” in his studio, thus allowing for greater interplay between initial conception and the specific forms and materials through which the final structure emerged.
It also enabled him to employ standard materials such as concrete, wood and even rubber, which are typically flat or rectangular, in more sculptural ways.
Massie has been recognized by Architecture Magazine with back-to-back Research Awards, for the projects “Augmented Reality in Architectural Construction,” in association with Tony Webster, Steve Feiner and Ted Kreuger; and for “Virtual Model to Actual Construct.”
Massie earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in architectural studies from Parsons School of Design and a master of architecture from Columbia University. Upon graduation, he worked for Robertson McAnulty Architects and James Stewart Polshek and Partners.
In 1993, he started his own company while teaching at Columbia, where he was appointed coordinator for building technologies research. He also has taught at Montana State University in Bozeman and at Parsons School of Design in New York City and has been a visiting critic at Harvard University, Yale University, California Polytechnic Institute and Lawrence Technological University.
For reservations or more information, call 935-6227 or e-mail wuarch@wustl.edu.