Christine Macy Full Professor; Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Planning BA(Arch) (Calif. at Berkeley), MArch (MIT)
Fall 2010: ARCH 9007: MArch Thesis Preparation Winter 2011: ARCH 3105: Architectural History and Theory - 20th Century ARCH 9008: MArch Thesis Background Christine Macy teaches architectural design and modern architectural history and theory. Her research areas include the representation of cultural identity in architecture, public spaces, civic infrastructure, temporary urbanism and festival architecture. Educated at the University of California, Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she practiced architecture with the Edelman Partnership in New York and MACK Architects in San Francisco before establishing her partnership, Filum, with Sarah Bonnemaison in 1990, specializing in lightweight structures and public space design for festivals. Before joining the faculty at Dalhousie, Prof. Macy taught at UC Berkeley and the University of British Columbia. She is the Atlantic Region correspondent for Canadian Architect and is on the Advisory Board for the Berkeley Prize. Macy has been invited to speak on her historical research at Columbia University, University of Maryland, the Catholic University of Leuwen, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, University College-London, and the University of Waterloo. Published books include Architecture and Nature (co-authored with S. Bonnemaison, Routledge, 2004) and Greening the City (Halifax, 2001). She is currently working on Dams (Norton) and an edited volume, Festival Architecture and Architectural Theory (Routledge). Her articles have appeared in Canadian Architect, Canadian Journal of Urban Research, Design Quarterly, Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, Offramp, and On Site Review. Filum has been invited to speak on their design work nationally and internationally. Their work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Asian Center at the University of British Columbia, California College of Arts and Crafts, Royal Institute of British Architects, Nickle Arts Museum, Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design, Owens Art Gallery, Parsons School of Design, Pavilion de l'Arsenal, Royal Ontario Museum, Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre, Surrey Art Gallery, and Vancouver Art Gallery. Teaching areas Architectural and urban design, modern architectural history, theory and criticism, temporary urbanism, urban infrastructures, lightweight structures. Research and design interests My research interests lie in two broad areas of architecture: its cultural dimension and its material realization. Among the former, I have research work in the architecture of festivals and commemorations, and the interpretation of cultures and landscapes; among the latter, projects involving lightweight materials and forms, as well as tensile, mobile and collapsible structures. Research and design work Architecture of Festivals Analysis and interpretation of ephemeral architecture and urbanism is one of my oldest areas of work, currently taking the form of an edited book Festival Architecture and Architectural Theory (Routledge, forthcoming). Other publications in this area are "Queering the Grid: Transgression and Liminality in the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade," Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (2003); "Encounter with the past: design work for a post-colonial commemoration," Antipode 29/4 (1997), "The Construction of a RamLila Effigy," Offramp (1991); and "The RamLila in Ramnagar," Design Quarterly (1990). Through my office Filum, we have developed designs for the World of Brazil Music Festival (1997), Atlantic Jazz Festival (1996), Vancouver Step Magazine Relaunch (1993), Arrivals+Encounters: City of Vancouver Bicentennial (1992), Music '91: British Columbia's Year of Music Festival (1991), and Celebration '90: Third International Gay Games (1990). Funders for this work include the Smithsonian Institution Special Foreign Currency Project. Lightweight Structures This on-going design research in the area of form-finding and manufacturing of tensile structures has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Industrial Research Assistance Program, and the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Culture. Design projects include Gestures Pavilions, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (2005); Hummingbird: Millennium Flags Installation, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (2000), which received the Design Exchange Merit Award; Queer Looking, Queer Acting Installation, Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery (1998); Fuji Pavilion, Botanical Garden, Montreal (1996); and the Urban Expresso Ceiling Systems, Greater Vancouver (1992-3), which received an Award of Design Excellence, Industrial Fabrics Association International. Our design work in this area has been published in The Architectural Review (Feb. 2001), FiberArts (Jan/Feb 2001), Canadian Architect (June 2000), Arts Atlantic (Spring 1998), Métiers d'Art (June 1997), Fabrics and Architecture (Jan/Feb 1994); and has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Cultural Communities and Interpretation A number of design projects with my office Filum have involved the interpretation of cultures and landscapes. Significant projects include the Tower to Industry, Nova Scotia Museum (2001), Birchtown Interpretive Centre, Black Loyalist Heritage Society (1998), Women's Monument Competition, Vancouver (1994) which received a Special Mention, and the public plazas for General Motors Place, Vancouver (1992-4). This work has been exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum; The Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary; and Surrey Art Gallery, and published in Architecture and Sewing: On Site Review (June 2002) and The Beaver (Feb/Mar 1999). Nature and Architecture This is historical research in the intersection of nature and culture at the scale of buildings and landscapes, with a particular focus on large-scale infrastructure. Books include Architecture and Nature: Creating the American Landscape (Routledge, 2003), Greening the City: Ecological Wastewater Treatment in Halifax (Dalhousie Architecture, 2001), and the forthcoming Dams (Norton/Library of Congress). Articles in this area are included in Architecture as Experience (Routledge, 2004) and Gendered Landscapes (Pennsylvania State University, 2000). Funding for this research has been provided by The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. |
