Taubman College Dean Monica Ponce de Leon, along with eight other architecture faculty members from the college are presenting at the 2010 ACSA West Central Fall Conference “Flip Your Field” on Oct. 21-23, 2010, hosted by University of Illinois School of Architecture in Chicago.

The following faculty are presenting as follows:

• Dean Monica Ponce de Leon will speak on the panel titled, “Field Rotations,” on Sat., Oct. 23, 4-5:30 p.m., about surprising practices in design education and give how-to advice on counter-intuition and design intelligence.
• Architecture Chair John McMorrough will moderate a panel, Fri., Oct. 22, 4-5:30 p.m., entitled “Catastrophe,” on how emergency devices, ambulance chasing, epic failures and big form promise new opportunities to start over.
• Assistant Professor of Architecture McLain Clutter, along with Lecturers in Architecture Ellie Abrons, Meredith Miller, Tom Moran, Catie Newell and Rosalyne Shieh, will participate in the panel on “Negotiation,” on Sat., Oct. 23, 10-11:30 a.m. “Negotiation” will discuss how productive obstacles, collective interventions and shaky deals offer new freedoms from old constraints.
• Assistant Professor of Architecture Steven Mankouche will participate in the panel on “Detail” on Fri., Oct. 22, 2-3:30 p.m. “Detail,” centers around how eroded surfaces, arrayed assemblies, steam bending and seam stressing push the boundary of architectural envelopes.

The conference seeks to look at the devaluation in the field, based on recent attempts to extend architectures territory. The event hopes to “flip” this notion and examine carefully what is happening in the field. Ten opportunities for ideological re-investment are proposed in categories ranging from “Catastrophe,” to “Energy,” with the intent to spark dialogue and idea generation.

Visit the conference website for more information about the event.