Town Hall to Showcase UK's Designs for West Liberty's Future
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 28, 2014) — Later this week, students from the University of Kentucky College of Design will present their concepts to aid in the rebuilding of West Liberty, as well as their work on a farm-to-table restaurant that will lay the foundation for an emerging fabrication partnership for the community ravaged by a tornado in spring of 2012. Doors open for the event at 4:30 p.m. and will include a formal presentation and an exhibit from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 30, at the Morehead State University Academic Center Building, in West Liberty.
Now in its third year, UK College of Design began addressing issues related to West Liberty starting with a National Science Foundation-funded Systems Thinking for Sustainability (NSF-STFS) course in 2013 led by UK College of Design Associate Dean for Research Gregory Luhan, the John Russell Groves Endowed Professor of Architecture, and a team of UK and Texas A&M University (TAMU) faculty from multiple colleges and departments.
Luhan began publishing the work for West Liberty from his three studios starting in spring 2014 with the book "West Liberty. Moving Forward. Together" developed by Kindall Stephens. This book features the studio work at the TAMU Department of Architecture using UK's STFS course work led by Luhan who was on-site in Texas from 2013-2014. The following fall, his UK studio published its work under the title "West Liberty. Revive. Rebuild. Reflect." The concepts, research and work of his most recent studio are featured in "West Liberty. Building Our Future."
The current interdisciplinary design studio, comprised of 11 students from the UK School of Architecture, worked with industry partners and stakeholders from Lexington, Morehead, West Liberty and Morgan County to develop prototypes for primary and secondary use products germane to the region. These prototypes include a vertical farm, a farmer’s market, a farm-to-table restaurant, a cultural heritage center, a hotel, a bicycle hub, mixed-use bookstore/cafe, an educatorium event space, a recycling center and sorghum/hemp/timber manufacturing facilities.
In addition to proposals for the community's future, the studio is developing an innovative fabrication partnership with Morehead State University and the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex, who would assist the studio in fabricating, assembling and finishing furniture and built-in cabinetry for the proposed projects.
The West Liberty projects also expand the college's successful HBEER (Houseboats to Energy Efficient Residences) grant-funded research initiative beyond residential and school-based constructions to include offices and clinics. Luhan’s team is nearing the completion of a first commercial structure, a restaurant – Giovanni’s on Prestonsburg Road in downtown West Liberty.
The West Liberty studio's proposals are also garnering attention outside the state, showing their relevance to answering problems across the nation, as well as internationally. In early April, the studio, which includes members of our university's Big Blue Impact | Making Sustainability Visible team, presented collaborative and artistic approaches to visualizing big data at the Consortium of Design Educators Symposium in Oxford, Ohio. The BBI team then ran a workshop at Fabricate 2015 AIAS (American Institute of Architecture Students) Quad Conference for design students from across the United States. The workshop was titled "Data-driven Installations." Both presentations are rooted in the formative structures of multidisciplinary and collaborative teamwork and are working to narrow the gap between data and design. This fall, the team’s co-authored research paper will be presented in Vienna, Austria.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu