PARSONS THE NEW SCHOOL FOR DESIGN HOSTS SYMPOSIUM ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN THE FIELD OF INTERIOR DESIGN

After Taste: New Agendas for the Study of Interior Design, March 30-31, 2007 at Parsons

NEW YORK�March 28, 2007�Parsons The New School for Design will host After Taste, a two-day symposium that will take a critical look at contemporary issues in the field of interior design, taking place March 30-31, 2007. Organized by the Department of Architecture, Interior Design and Lighting, the event celebrates the centennial of interior design at Parsons, with a critical assessment of the state of the field, is future direction, and the role of undergraduate and graduate interior design education at Parsons in shaping that future.

�A century ago Frank Alvah Parsons founded the first Interior Design program in the United States at Parsons, and for over ten decades the program has developed in response to a number of cultural and professional forces, as has the field at large,� said Kent Kleinman, chair of the Architecture, Interior Design and Lighting Department at Parsons. �Today, the study of the interior has become a hybrid of environmental psychology, fashion design, product design, architecture, material science and cultivated taste. Now at a time of unusually rapid technological and cultural evolution, it is time for a critical assessment of the field.�

Among the participating guests are keynote speaker Petra Blaisse (Inside Outside, Amsterdam), Constance Adams (designer for NASA�s International Space Station), Donald Albrecht (independent curator and adjunct curator of Architecture and Design, Museum of the City of New York), Andrew Blauvelt (Design Director and Curator, Walker Art Center), Beatriz Colomina (architectural historian and theorist, Princeton University); Julieanna Preston (co-editor, Intimus: Interior Design Theory Reader); Susan Szenasy (editor-in-chief, Metropolis); Susan Yelavich (design critic and historian, Parsons); and a number of internationally distinguished interior designers including Jamie Drake, Kitty Hawks and David Ling.

�Through lectures and roundtable discussions After Taste will explore four key areas in the study of interior design: The Dweller�s Trace will address the state of theory in interior design; More Room will explore alternative sites, users and technologies; Class Room, will provide an overview of alternative pedagogical models; and Outside In, will investigate progressive practices at the outer edges of the field,� said Lois Weinthal, director of Interior Design at Parsons, who recently joined the school after serving on faculty at the University of Texas at Austin.

After Taste is free and open to the public.
For more information contact 212.229.8919 or visit www.parsons.newschool.edu/architecture.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Friday, March 30
1 p.m.
Keynote Lecture
Petra Blaisse, Inside Outside

4 p.m.
Roundtable Discussion
The Dweller�s Trace: Theorizing the Study of the Interior
Presentation by Beatriz Colomina
Round Table Participants:
Moderator: Susan Yelavich
Constance Adams
Petra Blaisse
Andrew Blauvelt
Kent Kleinman
Julieanna Preston

Saturday March 31
10 a.m.
Roundtable Discussion
More Room: Alternative Sites, Users, and Technologies
Presentation by Constance Adams
Round Table Participants:
Moderator: Susan Szenasy
Constance Adams
Donald Albrecht
Petra Blaisse
Andrew Blauvelt
Beatriz Colomina
Julieanna Preston

2 p.m.
Roundtable Discussion
Class/Room: Pedagogical Models Reconsidered
Presentation by Julieanna Preston
Round Table Participants:
Moderator: Lois Weinthal
Constance Adams
Petra Blaisse
Andrew Blauvelt
Beatriz Colomina
David Ling
Julieanna Preston

5 p.m.
Roundtable Discussion
Outside In: Progressive Practices at the Edge of the Field
Presentation by Andrew Blauvelt
Round Table Participants:
Moderator: Donald Albrecht
Constance Adams
Petra Blaisse
Beatriz Colomina
Jamie Drake
Kitty Hawks
Julieanna Preston

FEATURED BIOS

Constance Adams is an architect who works in the space program for such clientele as Lockheed Martin Space Operations and NASA. Adams studied sociology at Harvard University, then completed a master's degree in architecture at Yale University. After a two-year apprenticeship with Kenzo Tange Associates in Tokyo, followed by four years working in Berlin on commercial and master planning projects, she was employed by the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Among other projects, Adams was involved in developing the Lockheed-Martin design of an inflatable module for the International Space Station. The module, known as TransHab ("transit habitat"), was designed to provide living quarters for astronauts aboard the space station, including a common room, gymnasium, shower, and other amenities.

Donald Albrecht is an independent curator and curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of the City of New York. He has organized exhibitions for the Cooper-Hewitt, the National Building Museum, the Getty Center, the Library of Congress and the Vitra Design Museum. Most recently he curated the exhibition Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future for a consortium led by the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design for the National Building Museum. His publications include Glass + Glamour: Steuben's Modern Moment, 1930-1960, Russell Wright: Creating American Lifestyle, and Designing Dreams: Modern Architecture in the Movies. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

Petra Blaisse is a landscape and interior designer whose work is known for challenging conventional distinctions of space by fluidly connecting inside and outside environments and blurring the relationship between interior, architecture and landscape. In 1991, Blaisse founded the Amsterdam-based design office Inside Outside. She is internationally acclaimed for her designs of theatre curtains, acoustic walls and cast floors, including the embossed liquid-gold drapes for the Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague, the curtain-as-walls for the Mick Jagger Centre near London, and the space-defining pleated walls for the VIP department in New York's Prada Store. Blaisse has worked with Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA on the new glass pavilion for the Toledo Museum of Art; with Rem Koolhaas/OMA on the Seattle Main Public Library, the Casa de Musica in Portugal, the Dutch Embassy in Berlin, and the ITT in Chicago, with Bruce Mau on the Downsview Park in Toronto; a member of the team on the Giardini di Porta Nuova in Milan, Italy, and with Michael Maltzan on the courtyard for the UCLA Hammer Museum.

Andrew Blauvelt is design director and curator of architecture and design for the Walker Art Center. Blauvelt was recently selected as one of the �100 most significant� graphic designers in Area, a curated international survey of contemporary graphic designers. Under his leadership at the Walker Art Center, the design studio was nominated for the prestigious Chrysler Award for Design Innovation and a National Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York. As a curator, Blauvelt has organized exhibitions such as Some Assembly Required: Contemporary Prefabricated Houses (2005), Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life (2003), and a forthcoming exhibition on the contemporary American suburb (2008). He led the experience design planning for the Herzog & de Meuron-designed expansion to the Walker and helped develop the interior design of its new administrative offices and public spaces. Blauvelt received his MFA in Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he later served as interim chair of the department. He has also taught in the graduate programs of North Carolina State University and the Jan van Eyck Akademie in the Netherlands.

Beatriz Colomina is an internationally renowned architectural historian and theorist who has written extensively on questions of architecture and media. Her books include Domesticity at War, Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media; Sexuality and Space; Architectureproduction; and Double Exposure: Architecture through Art. She has been on the editorial board of Assemblage, Daidalos, and Grey Room, and has received a Graham Foundation grant for her current research project "X-Ray Architecture: Illness as Metaphor." Since 1988, Colomina has taught at Princeton University's School of Architecture, where she is Director of Doctoral Studies and Founding Director of the Program in Media and Modernity.

Jamie Drake is the founder of Drake Design Associates, a New York-based design firm that is responsible for some of the country's most dynamic, distinctive and livable interiors. He has designed residences for clients including Madonna and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and oversaw the restoration and renovation of Gracie Mansion. His work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle D�cor, House Beautiful, The New York Times , and House & Garden. He was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 2003.

Kitty Hawks is principal of Kitty Hawks Incorporated. Her clients include Mr. and Mrs. Tom Brokaw, Candice Bergen, Arne Glimcher, Marshall Rose, Agnes Gund, Michael Ovitz, and Mike Nichols and Diane Sawyer. Her work has been published in House and Garden, Interior Design , House Beautiful , and Architectural Digest . Prior to opening her design firm, she was Creative Director for Perry Ellis and Stendig Furniture. She is presently on the boards of the Design Trust for Public Space and the Municipal Art Society. These organizations deal with issues of urban planning, development, and preservation in the city of New York. She has worked on issues ranging from sustainability to the redesign of the taxicab and the redevelopment of New York's West Side rail yards. In recognition of her practice, Hawks was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 2005.

Kent Kleinman is chair of Architecture, Interior Design, and Lighting at Parsons. He has taught at architecture schools in the United States and Europe, including the University of Michigan, Cornell University, the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, the Hochschule der Kunst in Berlin, the Danish Royal Academy in Copenhagen, and most recently the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he was a professor in the Department of Architecture since 2000. Kent holds B.A. and M.Arch degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. His scholarly focus is 20th Century European Modernism, and his publications include The Villa M�ller: A Work of Adolf Loos; Rudolf Arnheim: Revealing Vision; and Mies van der Rohe: The Krefeld Villas. He has contributed to national and international publications including Bauwelt, Progressive Architecture, Bauart, Archis and the Architect's Journal. He has received two Graham Foundation Grants, the Arnold W. Brunner Award, and a Progressive Architecture Design Award. His design work has been exhibited at the Genius Loci Gallery (Prague), the Charlottenburg Museum (Denmark), the Museum Haus Lange (Germany), Yale University, and the University of Michigan.

David Ling founded David Ling Architects in 1992. After training as an associate with Richard Meier and I.M. Pei, Ling established an international practice in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Composed of museum and gallery spaces, theatre, creative offices, high-end retail, high-end residences and institutional spaces, Ling�s work has received numerous international awards such as the Interiors Magazine�s Annual Awards for Best Retail Design (2001) and Best Office Design (1995), London�s Design Partnership Award for Best Retail Design (2000), ICFF�s Best Exhibition Design (2001), London�s Grosvenor House Award for Best Exhibition Design (1991) as well as international press including The New York Times, Wallpaper, Interior Design, Interiors, House and Garden, Elle D�cor, Metropolitan Home, Dwell, VM+SD, Interni, and Architektur und Wohnen, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, and Burlington Magazine. Ling teaches at Parsons The New School for Design and the University of Nuremburg. He has served on design juries for Interiors Magazine, Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Julieanna Preston is Postgraduate Director and Senior Lecturer of Interior Design at the College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand, and co-editor of Intimus : Interior Design Theory Reader, arguably the only anthology of interior design theory. Preston's teaching and research interests lie in developing interior design as both a spatial art and an intellectual endeavor, and her work typically engages craft as a mode of thinking through theoretical issues and positions, often embedding the learning process in design proposals. Preston's professional and research activities are also developed through her office, Building Arts Practice.

Susan S. Szenasy has served as chief editor of Metropolis, the New York City-based magazine of architecture, culture, and design, since 1986. During her 21 years as editor-in-chief, the magazine has gained international recognition and has won numerous awards. Szenasy is the author of several books on design, including The Home and Light. She is a frequent lecturer and panel moderator on broad ranging design topics including the internationally web-cast 2010 Imperative conference on sustainable design. Szenasy facilitates Metropolis's conferences such as Tropical Green and Design Entrepreneurs. She is the co-founder of R.Dot (Rebuild Downtown Our Town), a coalition of New Yorkers who came together after the 9/11 tragedies to contribute their expertise to building the 21st -century metropolis at the site of the former World Trade Center. She holds honorary doctorates from Kendall College of Art and Design and Art Center College of Design.

Lois Weinthal is the director of the Interior Design program at Parsons and principal of Weinthal Works. Previously, Lois was an Associate Professor and co-developer of the Architectural Interior Design Program at the University of Texas at Austin. Among her chief efforts at UT Austin was to advance the development of the Architectural Interior Design program and to strengthen its connections to the Architecture program. She also co-led the effort toward FIDER accreditation and increased the program's visibility externally. She is particularly interested in the relationships between architecture, interiors, and objects, which includes the design of furniture and clothing. She has received grants from the Graham Foundation, a Fulbright Award, and a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Award. She has lectured, published, and exhibited widely in the field, and is principal of the design practice Weinthal Works.

Susan Yelavich is a visiting assistant professor of Art and Design Studies at Parsons, and a noted design and architectural critic and historian. She is the author of the book Contemporary World Interiors (Phaidon Press, 2006), editor of Profile: Pentagram Design (Phaidon Press, 2004), co-author of Inside Design Now (Princeton Architectural Press, 2003), and author of Design for Life (Norton, 1997) and editor of The Edge of the Millennium: An International Critique of Architecture, Urban Planning, Product and Communication Design (Whitney Library of Design, 1993). Yelavich co-curated the 2003 National Design Triennial, and was awarded the Rolland Rome Prize Fellowship in Design from the American Academy in Rome in 2003-04.