Architecture Student Exchange
Baltimore-Rotterdam / Spring 2019
In spring 2019, graduate students at Morgan State University of Architecture + Planning (MSU S+P) and the Rotterdamse Academie van Bouwkunst (RAvB) did an exchange. Students focused their work on Hillesluis in Rotterdam and Pigtown in Baltimore and traveled to each other’s cities to do intensive workshops together, and held a symposium on April 18. This was a pilot exchange and is intended to lead to more collaborations in the future.
Together with Cristina Murphy from MSU SA+P we organized an exhibit of the students’ work for fall 2019 with a companion symposium on October 10, 2019.
Studio Design Brief
An environmentally and socially just city
Instructors
- MSU: Cristina C. Murphy, Dr. Jason Charalambides
- RAvB: Wouter Veldhuis, Rowin Petersma
Cities
- Baltimore, a city with tremendous potential working to overcome a legacy of injustices.
- Rotterdam, originally blue-collar working class and rated the poorest city in The Netherlands, today blossoming into one of the most influential global cities.
The design of the city is often the exclusive right of investors and wealthy people who hire architects. There is another city that can be imagined, a city where you as a resident have the right to develop yourself partly by giving shape to the city in which you live in. Through a parallel exploration of two cities, this studio creates space for residents’ self-development, and buildings that substantially contribute to a JUST city.
Within the framework of a collaborative studio between the two institutions, the students explore urban and architectual strategies that give city residents more relevance in the development of their own living environment.
The studio looks at energy efficiency in housing. It investigates how environmental, urban and social challenges can be dealt with together: how the transition to renewable energy can act as a lever to promote a more inclusive form of urban and social development.
Related events
Student travel
- March 15-24: MSU students & professors travel to Rotterdam. Site visits include: De Rotterdam, Rebel Group, De Urbanisten, MVRDR, GroupA, Ingenieursbureau Rotterdam, and a RAU lecture.
AIA Baltimore article about the trip - April 15-27: RAvB students & professors travel to Baltimore and several other US cities.
Redlining and Gentrification in Baltimore
ONE-DAY SYMPOSIUM
April 18 in Baltimore
A one-day academic workshop took place Thursday, April 18, 2019, 10am-5pm at Morgan State University School of Architecture + Planning. The workshop explores how redlining and gentrification shaped neighborhoods in Baltimore. It was part of Morgan State University / Rotterdamse Academie van Bouwkunst joint graduate studio project exploring the concept of a "Just City" in Baltimore and Rotterdam in the spring 2019 semester. It was free and open to the public.
AIA Baltimore article about the symposium
Symposium livestream, posted to YouTube
Symposium included:
- Keynote: Antero Pietila, author of Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City
- Lecture: Wouter Veldhuis (RAvB)
- Lecture: April de Simone (Designing the WE)
- Panel discussion: Lori Rubeling (Stevenson University), Zevi Thomas (AIA Baltimore), Colman Jordan (Morgan State University), Jerome Gray (jerome c gray architect llc), and others
- Exhibition: Undesign the Redline
From Exclusion to Inclusion
Rethinking infrastructure to bridge Baltimore’s divides
SYMPOSIUM & EXHIBITS
Cristina Murphy from MSU SA+P organized a symposium and exhibits on October 10, 2019 with help from Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee. The symposium featured a speaker from Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design (RAvB); the exhibits included works from the spring 2019 student exchange. Muprhy posted a report about it on AIA Baltimore’s website. At the bottom of the report are links to videos of the symposium.
