One of the priorities is to enlist high-profile practitioners and experts from different cultural and professional backgrounds to bring relevant knowledge and experience to the academic context, revitalizing curricula and school culture with new perspectives.
The Arquitectonica Resilient Future Forum (ARFF) is the latest addition to these strategic initiatives. This is a multi-year program generously funded by the Dean’s Advisory Committee Chair, Bernardo Fort-Brescia, and Arquitectonica Foundation. In Its inaugural 2022 iteration, ARFF enables an international multi-institutional collaboration on ULI’s Hines competition, with Centre for Landscape Research Director Fadi Masoud (University of Toronto) and Victor Perez-Amado (Ryerson University) joining U-SoA faculty Versuka Vasconez, Joanna Lombard, Mark Troen, and Alex Morcate, in a two-week intensive workshop with students from all three institutions.
The 2022 ARFF workshop includes 50 students from 9 different disciplines and 4 universities who are working on teams to investigate questions of climate, economic, and social resilience at scales that range from individuals and their neighborhoods to communities and the larger region. The intensive challenge of the ULI Hines Student Design Competition provides the forum for this expansive interdisciplinary exploration.
The Competition’s 2022 Challenge Brief engages resilience in its fullest expression as the project addresses the legacy of environmental and racial injustice that has shaped the present-day site and study area in Oakland, California, as well as the recent decade of planning efforts seeking to establish restorative initiatives. Closing this immersive workshop on 24 January with the Competition submissions, a late spring exhibition of the work is planned after all phases of the Competition conclude.
