Digital Design Center - UNCC College of Architecture

People

The team of professors, staff, and students working at the DDC adapts to the curriculum and research agenda.

Faculty/Staff

	Chris Beorkrem Digital Fabrication, Sustainability, Representation Les Arts Florissants, Jones House, Dido + Aeneas, New Media Working Group

Chris teaches and practices in all things digital. In particular, the use of fabrication tools in the creation of design at a variety of scales. Through his teaching, practice, and research he is in search of the balance between the legibility of form and the efficient use of time, machines and material. He also teaches the history and theory of digital design methods.

	Matt Parker Director of Architectural Computing New Media Working Group

Matt is the Director of Architectural Computing at the CoA. His interests include all things digital with a focus on digital imaging and representation. Matt prefers to stay out of the spotlight and act as the DDC digital enabler.

	Eric Sauda Professor - CoA Les Arts Florrisants, Areva, Dido + Aeneas, Urban Morphology, Urban Design and Computer Visualization, ArchInSite, Virtual Charlotte: Center City

Eric Sauda is a professor of architecture at the CoA. His interest in digital methods dates back to his graduate work at UCLA. He is currently working on the Virtual Charlotte project in collaboration with the Charlotte Visualization Center at CoIT, on the Intelligent Theatre project with Children's Theater of Charlotte, and on faculty digital curriculum workshops for the CoA.

	José Gámez Cultural Studies, Architectural and Urban Design South End Planning Study, Urban Morphology

José teaches cultural and urban studies as well as architectural design. His research and studio work range from his award winning community design studio (Architecture for Social Justice) to studios focused upon the spatial dynamics of contemporary urban settings. His interests in digital media involve the analysis, experimentation and representation of urban phenomena.

Kelly Carlson Reddig
Design, Theory, Materials & Fabrication, Tectonics

"If you fall in love with a machine there is something wrong with your love-life. If you worship a machine there is something wrong with your religion."

Lewis Mumford, Art and Technics

Robert Meagher describes techne as the definitive activity of human being, through which matter is shaped, converted, and transformed until it becomes what we intend it to be. Digital fabrication shifts the potential for both material transformation and intention into new territory, decoupling the assumed limitation of machines to serial production, collapsing the distance between designer and fabricator, yet also ironically placing the human making at further remove from actual contact with matter or machine. The new domains of digital fabrication within the broader spectrum of architectural making, as well as new digital paradigms at the scales of material production and building production are among my areas of research and design interest.

	Jeff Balmer Assistant Professor - CoA Les Arts Florrisants, Dido + Aeneas
Jeff has worked with the DDC helping to co-ordinate UNCC's 2007 opera, Dido + Aeneas. This year, he will continue to assist the production of 2008's opera, Les Arts Florissants.

	Ann Harley UNCC Music Department Les Arts Florrisants, Dido + Aeneas, New Media Working Group
Anne is the director of UNCC's 2008 Opera, Les Arts Florissants. The production has incorporated work from different disciplines within UNCC, such as the College of Architecture.

	Peter Wong Design, Theory, and Representation

Design interests include: digital modeling, descriptive and representational methods with the computer, and understanding the potential of parametric modeling.

	Nick Ault Digital Fabrication Digitactility, ArchInSite, New Media Working Group

Need info.

	Remco Chang Research Associate Urban Morphology, Urban Design and Computer Visualizaion

Remco Chang is a research associate at the Charlotte Visualization Center. His current research involves visualization of urban environments based on urban theories. Using combinations of existing architectural theories and visualization techniques, understandings of urban environments can be achieved at geometric, informational, and cognitive levels.

	Mike Wirth Resident Artist New Media Working Group

Mike Wirth is an exhibiting artist, award-winning filmmaker and educator, who utilizes technology as his central medium. Mike holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Long Island University in Digital Art and Design. Mike’s professional and academic experience with a range of new media applications brings a multi-faceted perspective into his classroom. Mike has taught new media in higher education for the past seven years, beginning in New York at the Parsons School of Design and the Sage College of Albany. Now a resident of North Carolina, Mike instructs at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and at the Art Institute of Charlotte. As an exhibiting artist, Mike has an ever-expanding record of fine art, film and interactive installations. A few notable exhibition spaces include: Rockefeller Center and the Chelsea Art Gallery in New York, NY, Split New Media and Film Fest in Split, Croatia, The WRO Wroclaw Media Art Biennale in Wroclaw, Poland, and The Institute of History and Art in Albany, New York. Mike has won two awards for his historical documentary about the language of gesture, including “Best Short” and “Official Selection” at the Ed Wood film festival (2004 Albany, NY) as well as “Official Selection” at the DigIt New Media Fest (2005 Narrowsburg, NY). Professionally, Mike has operated his own freelance design business for ten years, during which time he has worked on unique projects with notable clients, including: Siemens Building Technologies, ESPN-Outdoors, Anheuser Bush, and Columbia University Teachers College. Mike lives in Charlotte with his wife, Brittany and their Great Dane, Winston. www.mikewirthart.com

Students

	Ginette Wessel Graduate Research Assistant Urban Morphology, Urban Design and Computer Visualization

Ginette is currently completing her Master’s of Architecture and Master's of Arts in Geography at UNCC. She is involved in studies of Urban Visualization in junction with the UNCC Visualization Center. Specifically, this research entails studying the complex urban environment through a layer of information and technology.

	Emily Lancaster-Vine Research Assistant Jones House , Virtual Charlotte: Center City

Emily is a fourth year student at UNCC's College of Architecture. Currently, she is managing the Digital Design Center website.

	Heather Skinner Research Assistant Areva, Les Arts Florrisants, Dido + Aeneas

Need info.

	Ashley Sherman Graduate Research Assistant Les Arts Florrisants, Dido + Aeneas

Currently, Ashley is completing her Master's of Architecture at UNCC. She is involved with the collaboration between the Music Department and the College of Architecture. They are working together for the 2nd year, to incorporate various types of real-time technology into the Opera performance. Specifically, Ashley works with Motion Capture, which captures one's movement wirelessly and transmits the data back to the computer into a skeletal form. From there, the skeletal form can be manipulated to take on a variety of different body types which then can be projected from the computer to a large screen. The audience can follow that the real actor is moving and controlling the motions of the avatar being projected.

	Zac Porter Research Assistant Areva

Zac is a third year student at UNCC’s College of Architecture. Currently, he is involved in the design, exploration, and application of new technologies in a Nuclear Power Plant Control Room.

	Rasha Dumarieh Graduate Research Assistant ArchInSite

Rasha is currently working with the Digital Design Center’s ArchInSite project. This augmented reality application will enable the user to view a 3D architectural model in position on its proposed site. Her role includes writing the code that will feed the GPS coordinates into the 3D modeling software. She is also involved with Rhino scripting and researching the concept of designing a space given certain information about the flow/volume of the visitors/inhabitants of the space.

	Matt Gines Graduate Research Assistant

Matt is currently working on his Master’s of Architecture at UNCC. He is working with the Digital Design Center in exploring new materials to be used on the CNC machine. In addition he will begin researching Standing Seam Technology, and building prototype systems.

	Bin Lu Graduate Research Assistant

Bin is currently helping the DDC execute computer models and renderings. He is using programs such as Maya, 3d-max, rhino to build the models and the renderings are completed in V-ray.