Timothy Beatley visited the Collaborative Design program some weeks ago, and gave a public lecture in the PNCA Commons about Biophilic Cities, the topic of his most recent book. His visit was sponsored principally by the City of Portland—the Bureau of Environmental Services, and additionally, by the Intertwine Alliance.
PNCA’s Untitled Magazine recently posted his lecture so you can take a listen, even if you couldn’t be there the first time around.

Text borrowed from MFA ’13 Katie Mays’ blog

Check out this article about the GOOD Ideas for Cities forum held in Portland on Thursday. ADX approached PNCA Collaborative Design to collaborate on our Marshall High School plan. It turned out pretty awesome, and we got to help present at the forum! Looking forward to see what comes of this.

Visitors to the studio checking out student work.

The Collaborative Design studio finally opened its doors to the wider world by having an Open House, and it was a wonderful event! We had a great turn-out, and students really pulled the place together for a truly successful show.

Katie speaking with someone at Sisters of the Road. Image by Laura DeVito MFA ’13

Katie Mays is originally a Midwesterner—raised in Quincy, Illinois, but lived in Chicago for six years prior to moving to Portland. Her thesis centered on the idea of Design Volunteerism— enabling design students to gain real world experience working on social change projects that wouldn’t normally fall within the scope of traditional design practices.

Text by Dustin Freemont MFA ’13

Christopher Phillips talking to CD students

The PNCA MFA Collaborative Design program was honored to host Christopher Phillips for a Constitution Café on February 1st. Members of the program were joined by community residents, members of OccupyPDX, and Illahee board members. Phillips’ notion of a Constitution Café is to provoke discussion around the language of the constitution, something most of us probably regard as sacrosanct. In a time when our politics are so polarized, the Café was an enjoyable, non-partisan discussion.

From the “Building as Business” article on MetropolisMag

The reading list of Collaborative Design students is always varied and widespread—we collectively try to maintain an all-encompassing, holistic view of the world.
Just to give you a brief glimpse into what students are keeping up with these days, here’s a handful of what’s currently on the studio magazine rack:

Image from Emma’s site

Emma Dorothy Conley attended the University of San Diego and Bennington College in her undergraduate education. Her focus was in sculpture, installation, performance, and interactive art.

Mentor Mike Houck and MFA Chair Peter Schoonmaker

This past weekend, the Intertwine class went on a Field Trip to visit some of the green spaces around town, including Jamison Square, Oaks Bottom, Tanner Springs, and several other destinations.

Laura DeVito MFA ’13 has kindly shared some of her photos from the adventure. Check out the following images to go on a short tour of urban Intertwine spaces!

Image via The Intertwine

One of the most exciting studio labs that students are participating in this semester is Design Intertwine, with mentor Mike Houck. What is the Intertwine?—it simply refers to the amazing network of parks, trails and natural areas in the Portland-Vancouver area.

Image via Dave’s website

After studying architecture and sculpture at Arizona State University, Dave Laubenthal worked for Michael Curry Design, managing the sculpture department for 8 years. Dave still collaborates with MCD occasionally on commissioned projects, with highlights including masks and puppets for Broadway’s Lion King, Cirque du Soleil, and the Winter Olympics opening and closing ceremonies in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dave has been operating his own company, DJL Studio since 2001, specializing in custom design and fabrication in wood and steel.

Image from Joan Lundell’s MFA ’13 blog ; Collaboration with W+K on the Oregon Sustainability Center

One of the most unique elements to the Collaborative Design program is simply how, well, collaborative it is—not merely between students within the program, but within the urban landscape as a whole. The best way to describe this contextualization of the program within Portland and the larger Pacific Northwest is to look at the city as a living learning lab, where students are interacting with real-world issues on a daily basis. Not only do they confront relevant problems face-on, but they get to do it with some of the biggest and brightest designers, thinkers, anthropologists, programmers, writers, makers, etc. that the city has to offer.
Below you’ll find some of the exciting collaborations that have been taking place thus far:

Image via Joan’s website.

Joan Lundell earned a Bachelor of Industrial Design degree at Auburn University. After graduation she lived for one year at Arcosanti, a sustainable community located in the high desert of Arizona designed by visionary architect Paolo Soleri.

The fall semester wrapped up with an informal Open House at the Collaborative Design studio, focused on a series of three presentations from the students involved in Mayank Sharma’s Software Ecosystems course. As outlined by Intel Designer and anthropologist Sharma, this studio lab was designed to address the following:

Text and photos by Danielle Olson MFA ’13

Photo via Crystal Beasley

Pre-eviction: November 11th

I attended my first General Assembly the night before Occupy Portland was to be evicted. There was a discussion about how to prepare for being arrested as an act of civil disobedience. Small groups discussed what the next steps for Occupy Portland would be after the eviction.

The following is a story of my involvement in the Occupy movement, specifically Occupy Portland, and how it has influenced my academic experience as an MFA Collaborative Design Student at PNCA. The Occupy movement’s purpose is to intervene in a system: a system where the government is heavily influenced by wealthy corporations.