Two School of Architecture faculty members, Mario Gandelsonas and Jesse Reiser, have each received Strategic Partnership Grants for research-teaching collaborations with partner universities.
Princeton University's press release celebrates the Strategic Partership Grants as central to its global strategy: "We always seek initiatives that combine the pursuit of cutting edge ideas with creating opportunities for students and faculty to learn with others abroad," said Jeremy Adelman, director of Princeton's Council for International Teaching and Research and the Walter Samuel Carpenter III Professor in Spanish Civilization and Culture. "Our hope is that seeding these ventures will allow departments and centers to explore ways to bring new global courses and training infrastructures into their curricula. One prong of our global strategy is for Princeton's academic units, led by faculty, to enhance their missions by creating means for students and colleagues to cross borders as a central part of what they do."
Brief Descriptions
University of São Paulo
São Paulo as Fluvial Metropolis: Infrastructure, Meta-projects, Imagined Futures and the City as Home (Mario Gandelsonas, architecture and Princeton Environmental Institute, Princeton, and Alexandre Delijaicov, architecture and urbanisim, USP). In this-three year initiative, researchers will form a research network based on developing an environmental approach to the design of urban water infrastructure in São Paulo. The network will focus on the Waterway Ring Project for São Paulo, a 106-mile network of rivers, reservoirs and an artificial canal intended to re-organize the growth of the city. The network's activities will include six meetings alternating between Princeton and São Paulo; design-based research studios at each school on the Waterway Ring Project; a new Princeton course on environmental humanities; a new summer internship program in São Paulo and Brazil focused on urban infrastructure and environmental challenges; and two new graduate courses at USP.
University of Tokyo
Meet the Authors: A Cross Cultural Analysis of Architectural Writings (Jesse Reiser, architecture, Princeton, and Yusuke Obuchi, architecture and engineering, Tokyo). In this three-year project, the institutions will stage a "Meet the Authors" workshop for students to engage directly with authors of significant writings in architectural discourse in both countries, as many key works have not been translated. The project, which builds on a collaborative studio program started in 2010, will include graduate students, undergraduate students and faculty members. Each summer, each institution will hold a preparatory session and then hold two 10-day sessions together, one in Tokyo, one in Princeton; the topics for the three workshops are urbanism, media and the individual. After three years, the workshops will culminate in an exhibition and symposium to share the participants' research, with the exhibition traveling to both institutions.
