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Stuart Weitzman School of Design
A conversation about ‘Akon City’ and speculative urbanization
A conversation about ‘Akon City’ and speculative urbanization
Christopher Marcinkoski of the Weitzman School of Design unpacks—through the lens of speculative urbanization—the self-described ‘futuristic’ city to be built in Senegal, led by musician and philanthropist Akon.
Architecture’s William Braham on energy, carbon, and buildings for the future
Architecture’s William Braham on energy, carbon, and buildings for the future
For Climate Week 2020, The Weitzman School speaks with Braham about Penn’s Climate and Sustainability Action Plan, and what he’s learned about the build environment and its carbon footprint over time.
Weitzman team takes on preservation work at Lincoln Memorial
Weitzman team takes on preservation work at Lincoln Memorial
PennPraxis is continuing its partnership with the National Park Service on a cultural inventory and landscape project at the Lincoln Memorial, its most high-profile project to date.
First-of-its-kind virtual summer design studio for high school students
First-of-its-kind virtual summer design studio for high school students
In a unique partnership, Penn Praxis Design fellows led Fresh Air Everywhere, an intensive seven-week program providing teens with an introduction to design and architecture.
At the intersection of the built environment, environmental health, and social justice
At the intersection of the built environment, environmental health, and social justice
Junior Kai Song and sophomore Sage Basri worked with faculty mentor Franca Trubiano this summer to learn more about the wide-reaching impacts of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery.
Maps, pandemics, and reckoning with history
Maps, pandemics, and reckoning with history
Geospatial data has long been an important tool for scientists and scholars, but now, as society grapples with both coronavirus and a history of systemic racism, can maps help chart a path toward a brighter future?
Expressions of color, comfort, and creativity in the fight against COVID-19
With many summer internships disrupted by the pandemic, the Architecture Department at Penn partnered with Surface magazine to create the Summer School at Penn, a month-long virtual lecture series and design competition.
Offsetting carbon emissions, one ton at a time
Offsetting carbon emissions, one ton at a time
Carbon offsets are a small but meaningful market in its mission to contribute to greenhouse gas reducing industries and practices in order to compensate for emissions made elsewhere.
Design travels to South Carolina to plan more protective urban coastlines
Design travels to South Carolina to plan more protective urban coastlines
A Weitzman School team is working with the city of Charleston on an urban seawall plan that combines natural elements with structural systems that respond to the local conditions of the city’s shoreline.
Understanding infrastructure
Understanding infrastructure
In the second episode of Penn Today’s “Understand This ...” podcast series, emphasizing interdisciplinary perspectives, a Wharton and Weitzman School discuss the past, present, and future of infrastructure.
In the News
WHYY (Philadelphia)
Philly Council calls for hearings as city’s auto fatality rate soars
Erick Guerra of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design attributed a spike in car crashes in part to increased alcohol consumption. “People are drinking more during COVID so probably a high share are drunk. And people know there’s a higher consequence, so they run,” he said. “The other reason is just speed…. When there are less people on the road, you can go faster. And that really impacts the fatality rate.”
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The New Yorker
The new monuments that America needs
Paul Farber and Ken Lum of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and Philadelphia’s Monument Lab spoke about the dismantling of problematic statues and the process of democratically designing new ones. People have been taught to interpret statues “as unitary and their message as unified, rooted in consensus, as opposed to rooted in a subjective decision that is only a reflection of a segment of the community that had power,” said Lum.
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Vice
As China cracks down, Hong Kongers start digitally preserving their city
Randall Mason of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design commented on efforts to create a digital archive of Hong Kong’s culture. “Preservation is always a reflection of contemporary culture,” he said. “We have to get comfortable with the fact that if we want to communicate the past, it’s a creative process and not just a preservation process. It would be crazy not to use these digital tools.”
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Vice
How to put up monuments that truly recon with American History
Paul Farber of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and Center for Public Art and Space visiting scholar Sue Mobley spoke about President Trump’s proposed National Garden of American Heroes and proposed a new democratic process for creating monuments. “History doesn’t fit well in statues,” said Mobley. “Movements don’t fit well in summaries; they’re ongoing.”
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Philadelphia Inquirer
Philly’s housing insecurity crisis needs long-term solutions
Claudia Aiken, Sydney Goldstein, and Vincent Reina of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design wrote an op-ed about Philadelphia’s housing crisis. “Unaffordable rents, a tsunami of layoffs largely in the service industries where many low-income renters were employed, and the vanishing housing safety net created a perfect storm in which low-income, and particularly Black, renters have nowhere to turn,” they said.
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