The 2001 ACSA/AIA Teacher's Seminar at Cranbrook Academy, Bloomfield, Mich., July 28–31, will address material culture and changing attitudes about what it means to be "material" in a digital culture. Participants will focus on interfaces between design and technology (such as high tech/low tech, new tech/old tech) where architecture education and design practices could be more critically integrated, including:
• New materials: Using technology to design specific material properties
• Tropes: Using and inventing with existing standards
• Material and infrastructure integration: Inventing and using "double-duty" materials, such as materials conducting light and heat
• Architecture and engineering integration: Unraveling developments in building engineering practice to explore the role architectural practice plays in the innovations of building engineering
• Material production: Fabrication techniques and advanced molding/manufacturing capabilities
• Materials and global/local ecology: Sustainable materials and systems; inventing aesthetics and uses for recycled and reconstituted materials.

Bringing together practicing and academic architects, technologists, engineers, designers, and theorists, the seminar will allow participants to explore technology teaching and practice methods best suited to the possibilities borne of this new complexity. Participants will engage in presentations, symposia, and workshops designed to deepen understanding and approach to integrating materials and technology in design pedagogy, practice, and research.

Proceedings—including papers, projects, and conversations—will be documented and edited for publication to a wider audience. Participants are eligible for AIA Continuing Education System learning unit hours.

Copyright 2001 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.