Faculty News:

Yael Erel wins ACSA / JAE Best Article Award

Lecturer Yael Erel won the ACSA 2020 Architectural Education Award in the “JAE Best Article” category, for her design as scholarship essay “Constructing Mystery: A Pedagogy for Projecting Light” published in the Journal of Architectural Education 73:1, “Atmospheres” (Issue), March 2019. Please see complete award list here.

In order to create an atmosphere, architecture and light must interact; they are intimately linked. As architects we consider light as a mysterious substance, about which we are not necessarily experts.

This paper presents a pedagogy to teach the construction of such mystery, while understanding the physical and phenomenological mechanisms at play and the literary dimensions they hold. By constructing light installations students learn to design immersive environments that test various theses on projection.

The essay showcases student work from Professor Erel’s seminar “Projecting Light”, taught between 2016 and 2018 at Rensselaer School of Architecture in Troy, NY and the school’s Semester Abroad Program in Rome, Italy.

Please click here for Prof. Erel’s biography