Architectural Intelligence

11.30am - 12.30pm

Alexandra Barker

BAOO Studio

BIO:

Alexandra Barker, FAIA, LEED AP is the founder and principal of Barker Associates Architecture Office, an award-winning practice based in New York with a focus on exploring spatial and material practices that adapt to the evolving relationships between inhabitants and the built environment.

BAAO has worked in the public and private sector on a range of projects that include ground-up private residences, interiors, and educational and retail projects in the New York area, regionally, and internationally. Recent professional regional and national awards include those from AIA New York, AIA Brooklyn Queens, the Architects’ Newspaper, National SARA (Society of American Registered Architects), and Architizer. A monograph on the firm’s work, titled BAAO, was released in 2019 through ORO Editions.

Alexandra Barker is also the assistant chair and founding member of the Graduate Architecture and Urban Design Program and Associate Professor with CCE (Certificate of Continuing Education) at Pratt Institute, a nationally-ranked Master of Architecture and Post-Professional Architecture program. Her studios focus on integrative approaches to design and sustainability in urban contexts. She has been the recipient of Pratt faculty seed grants to integrate new design approaches into K-12 curricula and has presented the work in national and international conferences and papers. She was a recipient of an NCARB grant to integrate practice and education into Pratt’s curriculum and a FIPSE grant to integrate sustainable principles into design education

Alexandra Barker received her MARCH from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, where she received the Templeton Kelly Prize and the Clifford Wong Housing Prize for her thesis work. Her undergraduate work in Visual and Environmental Studies was completed at Harvard College, where she graduated magna cum laude. 

Talk topic:

Design Strategies for Early Childhood Education

Alexandra Barker, FAIA

Barker Associates Architecture Office (BAAO), an award-winning New York-based firm founded by Alexandra Barker, FAIA, in 2006, brings inventive, intelligent design to a dynamic, multivalent world through residential, interior, cultural and commercial projects at a wide range of scales and environments. Our speculative and community outreach work looks toward the future of architecture and brings design to broader communities. In this presentation, Barker will discuss three nationally recognized educational projects: City Kids Educational Center, Mi Casita Preschool and Cultural Center, and Maple Street School.

City Kids is a new childhood education center located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Six preschool classrooms on the ground floor and five after school classrooms on the second floor open onto an interior double height courtyard gathering space lit by a large storefront window. The preschool classrooms are interconnected through double doors and through shared spaces such as bathrooms and play sinks, with half height walls that allow for visual privacy for the kids and monitoring capability for the teachers. The after school classrooms are specialized classrooms for cooking, theater, STEM, art, and movement. A lounge with bleacher seats provides a place for informal gathering.

Mi Casita (designed collaboratively with 4|Mativ Design Studio) is located in a new mixed-use development in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Three classrooms to occupy a large space with 15' ceilings on the ground floor of the building with a lower level for support programming. The space is organized around an L-shaped trough sink that becomes a social gathering spot and that also functions as a bathroom sink. Divisions between rooms are made with furniture to provide flexibility so that the space can be transformed for special events including performances organized by the school's artist-in-residence.

The Maple Street School Preschool (designed in collaboration with 4|Mativ Design Studio) is a LEED Silver project located in a new mixed-used development in Prospect-Lefferts, Brooklyn.  A ground floor entry leads to three interconnected classrooms on the second floor, with access to an outdoor playspace on the roof. The classrooms share a central multi -purpose space with a kitchen located at the center, designed in the shape of a food truck, to accommodate daily student gatherings.

12.30pm - 1.30pm

Brian Wickersham

AUX Architecture

BIO:

Architect Brian Wickersham, AIA, is the founding partner of AUX Architecture. With more than twenty years of experience, he creates meaningful spaces that promote creativity and community. Bringing both rigor and spontaneity to his designs, he cultivates research and collaboration in his Los Angeles studio to produce bespoke architecture that best serves client needs. He likens this robust process to jazz: improvisational and collective.

AUX Architecture’s diverse body of work includes award-winning residential and multifamily homes, retail environments, art galleries, and education and cultural arts centers. Notable projects include the Saddle Peak Residence, which uses natural materials and sustainable

approaches to connect the to house the surrounding landscape, and the luminous, community minded Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center at Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services.

A native of the Pacific Northwest, Brian strives to mitigate architecture’s impact on the environment. He integrates care and sustainability into all aspects of the studio. He is a licensed architect in California and Nevada, NCARB certified, and a LEED Accredited Professional.

Talk abstract:

Back-to-Basics

Brian will discuss a handful of recent works by his Los Angeles based studio, the process at the heart of the designs, and how he is fusing a back-to-basics approach with new architectural technologies. He will also discuss how he identifies opportunities within the constructs that make building good architecture so challenging and why he feels that is so important today.

Learning outcomes and objectives for AACA:

1. Design: Conceptual Design

3.2 Application of creative imagination, aesthetic judgement and critical evaluation in formulating design options.

1. Design: Schematic Design

4.1 Evaluation of design options in relation to project requirements

1. Documentation: Detailed Design

5.1 Application of creative imagination and aesthetic judgement in producing a resolved project design