> 2020 AIA/ACSA Practice and Leadership Award

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From 2016 to 2019, the Forensics Studio was the final studio in the Master of Architecture program at South Dakota State University's Department of Architecture (DoArch). The studio investigated a range of architecture projects completed by the leading architecture firms in the state of South Dakota. During their last semester of study student teams collaborated with one participating architecture firm to research the firm’s methods of work and to unfold the critical workflows of that practice.

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The idea of architectural work is a complete mystification that obscures the fact that behind the production of something there is a much larger and wider agency than what is acknowledged in the public presentation of architectural work.  

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Pier Vittorio Aureli

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The work of the studio centered on making visual narratives from invisible and seemingly dull professional processes. How could we describe and understand the development of a building through the study of meeting minutes, requests for information, emails, and other ubiquitous tasks that consume our professional world? Visualizing under-examined professional processes to theorize about architectural labor was at the center of this academic project.

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The primary vehicle for making these processes visible was the collaborative design and development of several Forensics Books. The narrative of these books happens at the intersection of precedent study, professional practice, and speculative research.

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Since January 2016, thirty-eight (38) students, six (6) professional practices, and fifteen (15) architects have participated in the study of eighteen (18) buildings across South Dakota. The Forensics Studio is led by DoArch faculty, Federico Garcia Lammers. 

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> News

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08.19.20  

Forensics Studio pedagogy is being used in the Specs Studio at DoArch  

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06.20.20

Added to B-A-R-F, an online teaching platform about the Building Arts 

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03.13.20

Awarded the 2020 AIA/ACSA Practice and Leadership Award by American Institute of Architects and Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture

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06.28.19

Exhibited as I Didn’t Do Architecture Today...  at the ACSA/European Association for Architectural Education Conference: Practice of Teaching, Teaching of Practice hosted by the University of Antwerp, Belgium 

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03.28.19

Poster, published and presented as Professional Landscapes at the End of Education in the Feedback Processes in Practice and Pedagogy Project Session  at the 107th ACSA Conference hosted by Carnegie Mellon University

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03.28.19

Paper, published and presented as Dull Professional Data from Ordinary Precedents  in the Search, Research, Repeat Paper Session at the 107th ACSA Conference hosted by Carnegie Mellon University

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> People

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Faculty

Federico Garcia Lammers. Studio Coordinator. Associate Professor. DoArch

Brian T. Rex. Studio Advisor. Department Head and Associate Professor. DoArch

Jessica Garcia Fritz. Studio Advisor. Assistant Professor. DoArch

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Professional Practices

TSP Inc. (2016 – Current)

CO-OP Architecture (2017 – Current)

Koch Hazard Architects (2016 – 17)

JLG Architects (2016 – Current)

Perspective (2016)

Design Arc (2016)

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Students

John Angulu

Daniel James Bilka 

Justin Davis

Shaun Davis

Jesse Dunn

Anthony Dyk

Iman Ebadi Paskiabi 

Blake Foxley

Aspen Greene

Teresa Hebert

Bret Holt

Kyle Jamison

Amanda Jamison

Alex Krug

Nicholas Kummer

Ted LaCoursiere

Makenzie Lane

Megan Leebens

Emily Linehan

Alejandro Marin Rodriguez

Sulaiman Mustafa 

Ethan Millar

Emily Nelsen

Jared Nurnberger

Tolulope Oyeniyi

Levi Pfeil

Cassie Pospishil

Beau Prest

Jacob Ricke

Sushmita Shrestha 

Brian Skrovig 

Spencer Sommers

Thomas Squires 

Jacob Urban 

Joshua Wagner 

Garrett Walter

Riley Walz

Quadri Yusuff

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> Work

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The collective project in the Forensics Studio was an investigation into the decision-making and execution of a series of existing buildings in South Dakota. Through the making of time-based images and books, students explored networks of performances affecting the production of architecture.

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The studio defines forensics in three ways:

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1.  Referring to the (forum) and the practice of making an argument.

2. Referring to the (techniques) used to develop investigative strategies.

3. Referring to (time) and the non-linear sequencing of events.

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These three ways of referring to forensics are embedded into three steps that connect the studio schedule with its intellectual scope.

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The first step is an investigation of the building’s effects – basic functions and architectural relationships, and the links among owner, architect, financiers, and building professionals. After being connected to the project’s architects, engineers, contractors, and clients, students interrogate the situation and graphically dissect the building.

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The second step is connecting the facts of the project into a plausible story of how the project got to the way it is. In this phase students are graphically mapping out webs of interconnectivity between people, tools, and place. Webs are mapped by analyzing content and documents shared by the architecture firms.

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The third step is the graphical telling of each of these stories of a building process, and re-presenting the building to the project’s progenitors and the region’s professional community. Where the crux of the story lies both structurally and stylistically is the critique. The critique is based on linking broad disciplinary questions to specific professional processes.

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The aim of this work is to make the practice of architecture in this region of the United States the direct subject of a studio. Below is some evidence of the ongoing investigations conducted by students and faculty.

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Studio Websites

2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016

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Architectural Labor and Clerical Aesthetics