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Student Profile

Steve Schwenk

This pre-thesis summer research travel, “Post-Fabricated Lifestyles”, takes the position that the design lifecycle of the FEMA trailer continues after its initial production, as residents customize and appropriate the trailers and pubic spaces of the trailer parks to suit their specific lifestyles. The research mapped informal, dynamic, and user-initiated programming observed within the trailer parks visited throughout Louisiana and Mississippi.  This micro-urbanism was analyzed in contrast to the static, FEMA-initiated suburban model of programmatic zoning.  (Research Travel Grant, Thesis Committee Chair: Milton Curry, Summer 2007)
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"These experiences have forced me to look at architecture with fresh eyes."

Steve Schwenk

M.Arch.2 2008

The M.Arch.2 program at Cornell has been a great experience, exposing me to a variety of different design research tracks that comprise the contemporary architecture scene. However, what has impressed me most about the program is the ability to focus on a specific research trajectory by taking on a minor area of concentration. In my case, after taking a research studio on responsive environments that integrate emerging technologies like sensors and RFID tracking, I was interested in exploring the potential for public spaces embedded with these technologies to act as a vehicle for the eruption of civic voice. I pursued a minor in information science, taking classes that explored IT in a socio-cultural context, the command/control paradigm in computing, ubiquitous computing, and networking. I’ve even had the opportunity to join an information science think-tank concerned with culturally-embedded computing. These experiences have forced me to look at architecture with fresh eyes, and the questions raised will drive my work well beyond my time at Cornell.

education

Penn State, B.Arch. ('03)

work

Envision Design, 2003-2006

associations

CEMCOM: Culturally Embedded Computing Group

This research document, “The Pervasive Interface”, investigates
the spatial implications of a distributed human-computer interface, concluding that as this interface has become distributed over a greater distance, it has become more difficult for humans to realize their active participation within a feedback loop with a computer. This ambiguity has been explored in multiple scenarios in dystopic novels and movies.  The ultimate case study of this pervasive, yet unknown, interface is the HAL 9000 from 2001:  A Space Odyssey.  Here, the human subject remains unaware of the extent of their participation within the human-computer feedback loop, creating ambiguity as to who is actually controlling the environment. (Responsive Systems Research Studio, Professors Chris Perry, Branden Hookway, and Ezra Ardolino, Fall 2006)
This project proposes a public space typology that facilitates social exchange among occupants regardless of the density of users on site at any time. According to the distance that a human conversational voice travels, a landscape mediates visual and acoustic awareness of other occupants in the space. This partial and incomplete knowledge of the presence of others is intended to persuade acoustic and visual eavesdropping, leading to social exchange. The new surface has an embedded audio system that records and plays back conversation both over time (diachronic mediation) and across distance (synchronic mediation), compensating for complete lack of density or pockets of density on site.  (UBIME: Hyperfunctional Space Studio, Professoe Carla Leitao, Spring 2007)