Faculty

Nils Gore
Associate Professor

Research

Materials Investigation and Development
Design/Build
Learning by Doing
Affordable Housing
Construction Technology

Designing is a journey, in a way. You set off to find out, to learn. You accept the unexpected. If you get scared and immediately seek refuge in the warm and welcoming lair of the already seen, the already done, it is no journey. But if you have a taste for adventure, you don’t hide, you go on. Each project is a new start, and you are in unexplored territory. You are a Robinson Crusoe of modern times. Knowing how to do things not just with the head, but with the hands as well: this might seem a rather pragmatic and ideological goal. It is not. It is a way of safeguarding creative freedom. (Renzo Piano, Logbook, Monacelli Press, 1997.)

The bulk of my research from the last ten years has to do with understanding where architectural ideas come from, and developing pedagogical strategies to generate ideas about architecture. My goal in this work is to promote critical thinking about the preconceptions we bring to architectural projects, and about the design methods we use as we develop the ideas spawned in our imaginations.

Most recently, my research has been focused on design strategies which draw on ‘play,’ with real materials, at real scale, as a way of breaking down pre-conceptions, and as a means of developing design solutions not likely to be found in the space of the imagination. Through design/construct projects and activities, students find that hands-on making, coupled with traditional design media sponsors innovation.

Other research looks at the processes and tectonics of construction as a source of architectural ideas. Buildings are built by real people, in real time, with real materials, and these facts provide a starting point for design. Student design/build projects demonstrate how ideas about skill, craft, materials, fabrication and construction can serve as potent sources of architectural ideas.

In addition to the most recent research outlined above, some of my earlier research looks at how ideas about architecture are influenced by photography. As both critic and photographer, I am interested in how photography influences our design pre-conceptions and how it can be used as a generative tool in the design process.

• Architecture

• Arch803 Graduate Design Studio
• Arch401 Undergraduate Design Studio
• Arch627 Building Technology 2
• Arch622 Material Investigations
• Emerging Technologies and Design in Europe (Summer Study Abroad)
  

• B. Arch., Kansas State, 1985
• M. Arch., Harvard, 1993