The Environmental Design Department at Otis College of Art and Design is pleased to announce the selection of Al Borde as the 2021-2022 Donghia Designer-in-Residence!
Al Borde will present a public lecture on Thursday, March 17, on the Goldsmith campus for members of the Otis Community only, as well as via Zoom for the general public. Al Borde will also direct a one-week Master Class between March 17 and 23, 2022. Zoom info to attend the public lecture: https://zoom.us/join; Meeting ID = 755 354 3714.
2021-2022 Donghia Designer-in-Residence
Al Borde
"Al Borde is an Ecuadorian architecture firm founded in 2007 by Pascual Gangotena (Quito, 1977), David Barragán (Quito, 1981), Marialuisa Borja (Quito, 1984), and Esteban Benavides (Quito, 1985). Featured in landmark exhibitions such as Think Global, Build Social! Architectures for a Better World (Vienna, 2014) and Reporting from the Front at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennial, the group is known for aiming to turn scarcity into an aesthetic and socially empowering asset. Convinced that the strength of an architectural project lies in the later autonomy of its users, Al Borde’s design and decision-making process rely on the involvement of the community in all phases of planning and construction, and the systematic exploration of the local context. From Escuela Nueva Esperanza (2009), a rural school in the coastal village of Cabuyal, to the Culunco house (2014), a semi-buried family home, and the House of the Flying Beds (2017), a renovated historic property in the city of Ibarra, each of its projects is shaped by vernacular practices and natural or upcycled materials available on-site. Habitually working with small construction budgets, the team behind Al Borde (which was shortlisted for the Swiss Architectural Award in 2018) recently started to work on projects in emergency contexts. Their Post-Earthquake Prototype (2017), for instance, was developed following the earthquake that shook the coast of Ecuador in April 2016.” —From "100+ Best Architecture Firms," Domus, March 2019, by Drouet, Laura & Lacrouts, Oliver, Editors.
https://www.albordearq.com/
https://www.albordearq.com/quienes-somos_who-we-are
A generous grant from the Angelo Donghia Foundation supports Otis College's 14th consecutive 2021-2022 Donghia Designer-In-Residency!
The Angelo Donghia Foundation, Inc., a privately held not-for-profit organization created under the will of the late Angelo Donghia, provides support for two distinct fields: advancement of education in the field of interior design, and initiatives pertaining to the discovery of the causes of AIDS and its related diseases and their methods of treatment.
Images: Clockwise from top, all photographed by JAG Studio:
* Al Borde, from left: Esteban Benavides, Marialuisa Borja, David Barragán, and Pascual Gangotena; Casa Jardin, Toilet, Quito, Ecuador; Casa Culunco, Quito, Ecuador.
*As per current LACDPH indoor mask guidelines, attendees must wear a mask in the Forum whenever they are not actively eating or drinking, such as while seated after finishing food and drink.
**Attendees should review the Mask and Vaccination Policy before arriving to the campus and the Forum.
