News

Caryn awarded a 2022 ARCC Research Incentive Award

Caryn has received a 2022 Architecture Research Centers Consortium (ARCC) Research Incentive Award to support her research and creative activities. Her proposal, “Spatial Contexts and Social Networks: A Follow Up Study Examining the Effects of Pandemic-related Campus Modifications on Student Experience and Wellbeing” employs an ecological systems lens to understand how rapidly deployed modifications of campus spaces affected students’ experience of learning and of community, as well as their mental health and wellbeing, which are critical components of effective learning and development.

Celebrating TAD at 5 years old

It was such a privilege to work with an amazing group of designers, researchers, scholars and, especially, editors to bring the TAD project to the five year mark! In this editorial, we reflected on the state of the journal, its objectives, and achievements, while looking ahead to the next chapter. It was a meaningful final collaborative endeavor as some of the founding editorial board members, Caryn included, stepped down to make way for new members to move this project forward.

Presentation at 2021 ACSA/EAAE Teachers Conference

Caryn presented a paper on “Teaching Industry Disruption: Studying LBC Projects to Develop Carbon Positive Knowledge, Behaviors, & Advocacy” at the 2021 ACSA/EAAE Teachers Conference, titled Curriculum for Climate Agency: Design (in)Action. The paper considers how teaching professional practice topics and integrative design through a case-study method focused on LBC projects enables emerging practitioners to understand their ability and agency to disrupt established design, construction, and regulatory systems in order to build a more sustainable and equitable society.

Caryn serves on Book Award Jury

Caryn served on the Building Technology Educators’ Society (BTES) Book Award Jury with Coleman Coker and Dana Gulling. Congratulations to the winners and to all the submitting authors! Great reads!

EDRA 52 Presentations

Caryn presented in several sessions at the Environmental Research Design Association conference. “Partnering with Practitioners to Investigate K-12 Learning Environments,” shared insights from a collaborative research seminar conducted with Dorrie Brooks, principal of Jones Whitsett Architects. “Designing Residential Life Environments for Inclusivity in a Pandemic and Beyond” shared work from her Graduate Design Studio.

Caryn and Joseph Krupczynksi presented “El Corazón: Pursuing Inclusive and Just Strategies to Promote Sense of Belonging,” which described strategies for inclusive project partnerships and strategies to build community capacity for arts and culture programming, both part of their work through the Center for Design Engagement on El Corazón / The Heart of Holyoke.

El Corazón de Holyoke artworks installed!

El Corazón / The Heart of Holyoke Cultural Placekeeping project opened the second phase of public art installations last week! This phase of work includes Large Scale Photo Banners on four buildings along Main Street, a Panel Mural project on the corner of Sergeant & Main Street, and two Storefront Installation Projects – one at Nueva Esperanza, Inc on Main Street, and one at the Center for Design Engagement on Dwight Street.

For self guided tours of the artworks installed along Main Street, and artists’ bios and statements, see the dedicated El Corazón page on Nueva Esperanza, Inc. website.

See coverage on WWLP including interviews with artist/curator Shey Rivera-Rios and mural artist Frankie Borrero.

Caryn elevated to AIA College of Fellows!

Caryn is honored to have recently been elevated to the The American Institute of Architects (AIA) College of Fellows. AIA Fellows are recognized with the AIA’s highest membership honor for their exceptional work and contributions to architecture and society.

TAD is a finalist for Best New Journal in the Humanities and Social Sciences!

On January 21, 2021, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) unveiled finalists for the 45th annual Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) Awards, honoring scholarly works published in 2020, comprising a total of 130 finalists across 44 subject categories. The journal of Technology | Architecture + Design (TAD) was recognized as a finalist for the Prose Award in the category of “Best New Journal in Humanities & Social Sciences.” The PROSE Awards recognize publishers who produce books, journals, reference works, and digital products of extraordinary merit that make a significant contribution to a field of study each year.  Caryn is a Founding Editorial Board Member of TAD and was the inaugural Design Editor.

2020 EAAE-ARCC International Conference

Caryn presented (remotely) an interdisciplinary methods paper titled “Transferring visual methods from design to social science to advance built environment research” at the 2020 EAAE-ARCC International Conference hosted by the Polytechnic University in Valencia, Spain. The focus of the conference was on “Architecture + the City” with panels addressing new professional and research practices.

¡Comenzamos! El Corazón de Holyoke/The Heart of Holyoke

Amazing virtual kick-off to the second phase of El Corazón’s artistic projects introducing the selected local artists who will be creating large scale environmental artworks along Main Street in Holyoke. All selected artists will be working closely through mentorship programming with Shey Rivera Ríos, an interdisciplinary artist, cultural strategist, and arts administrator based in Providence, RI.