MIT Architecture | Fall 2020 Lecture Series
This year’s Allen lecture is dedicated to Edward B. Allen (1938-2020), who together with Mary Allen, endowed this lecture series a decade ago. Titled “Teaching Tech,” the panel discussion will focus on the teaching of building technology to architects and engineers – Ed’s great passion and his great contribution to the field of architecture. Honored by the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, Ed Allen’s numerous seminal textbooks place design first and foremost at the center of teaching technology. Through presentations and discussion among five panelists who were heavily influenced by Ed’s teaching and research, the panel will identify challenges and opportunities in the teaching of architectural technology.
Panelists include: Bill Baker, SOM; Christine Theodoropoulos, Dean CalPoly; Caitlin Mueller, Associate Professor, MIT; John Ochsendorf, Professor, MIT; and Mohamed Ismail, PhD Candidate, MIT.
William Baker is a structural engineering partner at SOM where he has led the structural engineering practice for over 20 years. Baker is best known for the development of the “buttressed core” structural system for the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest manmade structure. He is a Fellow of both the ASCE and the IStructE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering (United States) and an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Mohamed Ismail is a PhD Candidate in Building Technology at MIT. He is trained as both a civil engineer (BS, Duke University) and architect (MArch, University of Virginia), and he studies the potential for structural and material optimization in the alleviation of housing insecurity in the Global South.
Caitlin Mueller is an academic who works at the intersection of architecture and structural engineering. She is Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Architecture and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in the Building Technology Program, where she leads the Digital Structures research group.
John Ochsendorf is the Class of 1942 Professor of Architecture and Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, known for his research in the history and design of structures. He served as the Director of the American Academy in Rome from 2017-2020.
Christine Theodoropoulos is the Dean of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo since 2012. An international leader in architectural education, she has been a member of governing boards for the NAAB, the ACSA (Association for Collegiate Schools of Architecture), the AIAS (American Institute of Architecture Students) and served as founding president of the BTES (Building Technology Educators’ Society).
source
UCF0b_PC-cvPzv6Us56S6rtA
