Research, Outreach, and Funding / Research Through Making Grant

Historically, research and creative practice have been constructed as "opposites." This is not an unusual struggle in architecture schools, particularly in the context of a research university. This perceived tension between design and research is indicative of age-old anxieties within the architecture field to understand its nature as an "applied art." Design can be a purely creative activity not unlike creative practices in music and art. In other cases, design can be a purely problem solving activity, not unlike research in engineering and industrial production.

In its fourth year, University of Michigan Taubman College's Research Through Making (RTM) Program provides seed funding for faculty research, worked on by faculty, students and interdisciplinary experts. The exhibition presents tangible results of their collaborative work.

Research Through Making Installations:

Electroform(alism): Masters, substrates and the rules of attraction
Jean-Louis Farges and Anya Sirota
Empty Pavilion
McLain Clutter and Kyle Reynolds
(DE)COMPOSING TERRITORY: Enclosure as a negotiation between bioplastics + environments
Meredith Miller
Crease, Fold, Pour: Advancing Flexible Formwork with Digital Fabrication and Origami Folding
Maciej Kaczynski
Platform for Architecture & Makin' It, A Situation Comedy
John McMorrough and Julia McMorrough

Judges: Eva Franch i Gilabert, Director, Storefront for Art and Architecture; Michael Meredith, Principal, MOS; Assistant Professor, Princeton School of Architecture; Joe Valerio, Principal, Valerio Dewalt Train Associates