Taubman College Fast Company Magazine dedicates one issue annually to “Masters of Design.” This year, issue 149, which hits bookstands in October, recognizes the work of Dean Monica Ponce de Leon for the care and craft used to assemble the Fleet Library at the Rhode Island School of Design. Ponce de Leon, with Office dA business partner Nader Tehrani, designed and constructed the library with its eventual deconstruction in mind.
The write up states, “The assembly of eco-buildings may be the topic of the moment, but what about their eventual disassembly? Rather than avoid the grim thought that libraries may one day be obsolete (thanks, Kindle!), Monica Ponce de Leon (MOD ’07) embraced the possibility head-on. The Fleet Library, which she designed with partner Nader Tehrani for the Rhode Island School of Design, is made to be just as easy to take apart as it is to put together. “The environmental impact of buildings will change dramatically” as this thinking becomes more prevalent, says Ponce de Leon, now the dean of the University of Michigan’s architecture school. “In the future, buildings will respond more flexibly to the environment and to use.” Coming up: a border crossing between Maine and Canada made of digitally customized, freestanding canopies, each one different from the others.”
For more about the Masters of Design issue: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/149/alumni-masters-of-design.html
