(from Prof Neil Leach, USC)

Please circulate widely...especially to any of your students with an
interest in parametric and algorithmic research...
Thanks in advance!

(Also, please contact USC course leaders directly for any
queries/clarifications.)

-siddharth

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: neil leach <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 1:04 PM
Subject: RE:

*Master of Architecture
*
http://arch.usc.edu/Programs/GraduateDegreesandCertificates/MasterofArchitecture
*

*
Under Dean Qingyun Ma the Master of Architecture Program has been redesigned
as one of the most innovative and exciting programs anywhere in the world.
By bringing together several of the most renowned and progressive
instructors, the program aims to set new standards for postgraduate
education internationally. The program’s focus is on architecture in cities
throughout the world where conditions of increasing density require design
initiatives that support amenity, sustainability, and cultural diversity.
This is a serious search given the disconnectedness and banality of many
contemporary cities, their continuing haphazard growth and development, and
their wastefulness with regard to natural resources and societal potential.

For 2010, Frank Gehry and Francois Roche head up an all-star cast of
visiting faculty in USC's newly restructured Master of Architecture
post-professional program. Gehry will be leading a Gehry Partners studio
looking at an urban project in Los Angeles, while Roche will be exploring
concrete fabrication within a year-long research laboratory devoted to
Machinic Processes. Also at the graduate level, Roland Snooks joins forces
with USC faculty member Greg Otto (principal, Buro Happold LA), to lead a
digital research laboratory exploring the theme of Material Intelligence.

Our advanced course work offers a particular emphasis on parametric and
algorithmic research with visiting critics such as Nick Pisca, Casey Reas,
Mark Bolas and Behrokh Khoshnevis providing lectures and workshops in
scripting and digital fabrication, and on urban, territorial and cultural
research with visiting faculty Manuel DeLanda teaching theory, along with
Benjamin Bratton, Teddy Cruz, Kyong Park, Anne Balsamo and Norman Klein
providing additional support. Notable USC professors teaching in our Master
of Architecture program include Neil Leach, Stefano de Martino, John
Enright, Alice Kimm, and Eui Sung Yi. The Chair of the Graduate Program is
USC Professor John Mutlow.

The program draws inspiration from the energy and dynamism of the city of
Los Angeles itself.This city is a complex laboratory of urban life, a
melting pot of different cultures with an astonishingly rich ethnic
diversity. The city is a dystopian/utopian mix of rich and poor, privileged
and underprivileged, a range of contested territories and ever evolving
ethnic geographies. Blessed by a benign climate, and yet ever at risk from
earthquakes and other natural or manmade disasters, it is a city that has
learnt to take environmental and ecological questions seriously. But, above
all, Los Angeles is a highly original and experimental city that has
consistently challenged preconceptions and served as an incubator for new
ideas and practices. Back in the 1970s architectural historian, Reyner
Banham, documented the inventive way in which Los Angeles transgressed
traditional disciplinary boundaries, noting how those fabricating surfboards
were also involved in producing art works. That spirit of innovation and
experimentation continues today, with a diverse array of interdisciplinary
practices, many of them connected to the Hollywood movie industry and other
creative industries, and many of them involving digital technologies.

Due to the high demand for places on both our degree programs (post
professional M.Arch and +2 M.Arch), the application process will remain open
until *April 23, 2010*. Scholarships of up to 100% are available for
suitably qualified candidates.

---------------------------------