Winka Dubbeldam: Chair of Architecture at School of Design |
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March 19, 2013,
Volume 59, No. 25 |
Professor Winka Dubbeldam has been appointed as chair of the department of architecture in PennDesign. The appointment, announced by Dean of the School of Design, Marilyn Jordan Taylor, follows the work of a search committee led by architecture professor Ali Rahim and is effective immediately.
In her new role at PennDesign, Professor Dubbeldam will be leading the school’s array of architecture programs, including the Master of Architecture, the Master of Architecture in Environmental Building Design, the Post-Professional Program at PennDesign (PP@PD) and the PhD in architecture as well as continuing instruction of undergraduate students majoring in architecture.
Professor Dubbeldam brings broad experience in leading provocative design studios. She has taught at PennDesign, as well as Columbia and Harvard. At PennDesign she also leads the school’s post professional architectural design program. Her studios for PP@PD have embraced programs of zero waste as well as investigations of the fates of coastal cities in relation to global warming and extreme weather. She is internationally acclaimed for her ability to blend pragmatics and provocation in her studios.
The Dutch designer, architect and founder/principal of the New York firm Archi-Tectonics is also widely known for her award-winning work, recognized for the use of sustainable materials and smart building systems as well as for elegance and innovation. Recent projects include the Ports1961 flagship retail store in Paris, the concept for Munish Narula’s restaurant Tashan in Philadelphia, a renovation of musician John Legend’s Manhattan loft and an orphanage and school in Liberia. Archi-Tectonics was recently awarded the project to create the Yulin Culture and Art Center, a multi-purpose cultural development in Yulin, China.
“As we conducted our search, it became clear that Winka, both as a high-level designer and as an ardent risk-taker who is pushing architecture to exciting new directions, was the ideal candidate to lead the School of Design’s architecture programs,” said Dean Taylor. “We already know Winka as an excellent teacher, inspiring researcher and respected colleague; I am confident that the School will now benefit from her commitment to advance our architectural education and its relevance to the challenges of urbanism, civic design and building performance.”
Marion Weiss, Graham Chair Professor of Architecture at PennDesign, and principal of Weiss/Manfredi, and member of the search committee, praised the choice of Professor Dubbeldam as Chair. “Winka has a sustained engagement in both the theoretical possibilities and the physical realities of architecture. She is both theoretically strong and materially inventive, a natural fit to bring together Penn’s strengths in sustainable research and application to built work,” Professor Weiss said.
Professor Dubbeldam’s studies began in sculpture at the Rotterdam Art Academy, and she completed her Master’s in Architecture at Rotterdam’s Institute of Higher Professional Architectural Education before going to New York to do postgrad work at Columbia University.
Professor Dubbeldam’s investigative projects have been featured in international professional journals and in the three monographs: Winka Dubbeldam Architect (010 Publishers, 1996), AT-INdex (Princeton Press, 2007) and Archi-Tectonics (DAAB, 2010).
“Winka has the skill, the experience and the commitment to lead our architecture programs by advancing our curriculum, our critical discourse and our visibility,” said Dean Taylor. “It’s gratifying that her appointment was enthusiastically endorsed by our faculty as well as external reviewers—including three deans, one former dean, a former chair of architecture and a Pritzker Prize winner—to take on this exciting new role.”
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