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Dean Michael Speaks, UK School of Design |
University of Kentucky College of Design Names New Dean
Michael Speaks was named dean of the University of Kentucky College of Design in February of 2008.
Speaks is former director of the Graduate Program and founding director of the Metropolitan Research and Design Postgraduate Program at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles. Speaks also heads Big Soft Orange, a Dutch-American urban research group based in Rotterdam and Los Angeles. He was the founding editor of the cultural journal Polygraph and a former editor at Architecture New York and a+u (Tokyo), and currently serves as a contributing editor for Architectural Record.
An educator, researcher and editor, Speaks has served numerous institutions here in the U.S. and abroad. With a bachelor's degree from the University of Mississippi and a doctorate from Duke University, Speaks went on to serve as a research fellow from 1994-1995 as part of the architecture faculty at the Technological University at Delft in the Netherlands. Visiting faculty positions followed at such institutions as Yale School of Art, Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, The Berlage Institute in Rotterdam and University of California at Los Angeles.
Outside the classroom, the influential Los Angeles based writer and critic has published and lectured internationally on art, architecture, urban design and scenario planning. His essays and exhibitions in the 1990s were among the first to introduce a new generation of Dutch architects and planners to a broader audience in the U.S. Speaks has also played an important role in recent debates about city branding and alternative models of city planning, authoring a number of essays and advisory studies as well as overseeing scenario studies commissioned by city and regional governments in the Netherlands. More recently, Speaks has been at the center of debates about the role innovation and prototyping plays in design and has written a number of influential essays that argue for the importance of what he calls “design intelligence,” or the various forms of design knowledge generated during design but which are often overlooked in favor of “the design.” Such intelligence, Speaks argues, offers an important area for design research, especially in an increasingly knowledge-based economy. One tangible result of this approach to design research and prototyping can be seen in the first International Concrete Design Competition for Students 2003/2004, sponsored by a consortium of European cement producers and directed by Speaks.
Provost Kumble Subbaswamy said, "Dr. Michael Speaks brings a broad, multidisciplinary perspective on the role of design in modern society, and is ideally suited to build on this foundation in pursuit of UK’s Top 20 goals.His national and international connections in the professional world of design will serve UK’s design students.”
Since his tenure began at UK in February, Dean Speaks has already made two trips to Henderson and continues to make more as he develops the first master degree program that will focus on Henderson.
If you wish to comment about The Henderson Project or lend your ideas, direct your e-mail to info@ this web address (TheHendersonProject.com)
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