Taubman College In the not-so-distant past, the internet could be understood as a place. Taubman College faculty member Cyrus Peñarroyo is exploring ways to spatially re-socialize the internet.
Peñarroyo, an assistant professor of architecture at Taubman College, has been selected as a 2024 Art Omi: Architecture resident, an opportunity to develop his work during a two-week residency on Art Omi’s campus in upstate New York. He is among 10 early- to mid-career architects from around the world.
Peñarroyo will focus on creating new work related to his ongoing research on the material, spatial, and social dimensions of urban life continually transformed by the internet’s pervasiveness. During his residency at Art Omi: Architecture, he will revisit archival photographs of internet cafes from the mid-1990s and develop sketches for furnishings that attempt to spatially re-socialize the internet and call into question contemporary media consumption habits.
The Art Omi: Architecture residency program is the first of its kind in the nation. Residents are selected based on their individual proposed projects and portfolios, which may be conceptual or practical, ongoing or existing. At the end of the residency, Peñarroyo and fellow residents will present their completed projects in an informal critique setting, with visitors invited to see the proceedings.
Peñarroyo is a Filipino-American architect and educator whose work examines the urbanity of the internet. He is a partner in the design practice EXTENTS with fellow Taubman College faculty member, Associate Professor McLain Clutter. Peñarroyo is an Architectural League Prize winner, recipient of two ACSA Faculty Design Awards, and a former resident fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, among other prestigious honors.
Taubman College alum Moon Joo Lee, M.Arch ‘07, is also among this year’s Art Omi: Architecture residents. He is a registered architect in the state of Michigan and in South Korea, an adjunct professor of architecture at Hongik University, and the founding principal at OO Architecture, a design practice that explores ways to expand architecture’s critical capacity through the act of drawing and making.
Art Omi’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional program support is provided in part by the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
