McLain Clutter and Cyrus Peñarroyo, Taubman College faculty members who are design partners in the firm EXTENTS, have won a 2019–2020 Faculty Design Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. Clutter is associate professor and chair of the architecture program. Peñarroyo is an assistant professor.

The Faculty Design Award recognizes work that advances the reflective nature of practice and teaching by encouraging outstanding work in architecture and related environmental design fields as a critical endeavor.

Clutter and Peñarroyo were honored for “Shaped Places of Carroll County New Hampshire,” which speculates on the complex reciprocity between who we are and the shape of where we live; between identities and the environments that support them. The project culminates in the design of three linear cities in Carroll County, New Hampshire. For some, New Hampshire’s shape may hold unique resonance. A notorious swing state, it remained purple on the presidential election map until late into the night on November 8, 2016.

Much like the gerrymandering practices that produced those results, “Shaped Places” seeks to geometrically organize population at a geographic scale to carefully prescribed ends. The project draws upon a seemingly unlikely set of protagonists from Frank Stella to M.A. Ochitovic, and from American formalism to critical geography. Forced to co-exist, this melange informs strategies for co-existence by urbanizing the rural while ruralizing the urban. Shape and content forge a complex reciprocity.

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) is a nonprofit, membership association founded in 1912 to advance the quality of architectural education. ACSA, unique in its representative role for schools of architecture, provides a forum for ideas on the leading edge of architectural thought. Each year, the ACSA honors architectural educators for exemplary work in areas such as building design, community collaborations, scholarship, and service. Award winners inspire and challenge students, contribute to the profession’s knowledge base, and extend their work beyond the borders of academy into practice and the public sector.

Read a related story: Velikov, Rule Earn 2019-2020 ACSA Honors

See a complete list of ACSA award winners here.