FEATURED AUTHOR
Rob Whitehead
Rob Whitehead, is a licensed architect and Assoc. Prof. of Architecture at Iowa State University. He was named one of 30 Most Admired Educators by Design Intelligence (2014), received the AIA Iowa Educator Award, and the Building Technology Educators’ Society (BTES) Emerging Faculty Award. His structures course was awarded the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Creative Achievement Award. He is one of the authors of Design-Tech: Building Technology for Architects.
Education
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Bachelor of Architecture, Iowa State University, 1993
Master of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin, 1997
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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The fundamental premise of my work is the belief that architectural richness comes from a creative and scrupulous attention to structural principles, not in spite of them. When designers learn to appreciate, understand, and apply these principles, it enriches their ability to generate thoughtful, innovative, and technically proficient solutions to vexing problems.
My work has manifest itself as three inter-connected aspects of structural design, architecture, and construction:
Thinking: Structural Design Pedagogy for Architects
Making: Structures in Service, Design / Build Experiments
Breaking: History of Formative Failures & Innovations
I study the challenges of designing and constructing innovative and expressive architectural structures in an attempt to understand how they work (or don’t) and I develop ways to convey these formative lessons in support of future design efforts.
My work learns from productive failures in historical precedents, engages in design-build experiments, and seeks to expand the traditional realm of structural design tools to better align with contemporary technical, practical, social, and cultural conditions.
Websites
Books
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