FRIDAY, MARCH 4 | 2:30 - 3:30 PM  EST

• Event Topic:
  Location 
  Organizers/presenters 

• Conceptualizing Site in the Face of Fire:
  A Site Analysis Workshop 

  Case Study Area: Oregon/Cascadia

  Architecture Building, N310 (Mat Lab) 

  Keif Schleifer, Faculty, Kennesaw State University CACM (Marietta, GA)  

  Laura Foxman, Faculty, UD Mercy SACD & Wayne State University (Detroit, MI)  

Brief: 

The workshop will explore conceptual and interdisciplinary site analysis to facilitate greater understanding about place in the face of extreme climate predicaments. Fire-prone landscapes, specifically wildland urban interfaces in Oregon as a case study.  

Conceptualizing Site in the Face of Fire: A Site Analysis, an Equinox Week workshop, will explore conceptual and interdisciplinary site analysis to facilitate greater understanding about place in the face of extreme climate predicaments. Fire-prone landscapes, specifically wildland urban interfaces in Oregon, serve as our first case study. We will share developments from our own research; collectively workshop cross-disciplinary techniques and tools to advance site analysis practices in architecture/spatial pedagogy; and conceptualize creative site-based frameworks for Oregon/Cascadia’s fire management related to civic space, shared land and public participation. The Workshop will be led by Keif Schleifer (Kennesaw State University) and Laura Foxman (UD Mercy/Wayne State University) who are co-founding members of the Design by Fire (DBF) interdisciplinary research group and consortium. DBF’s initial research explores land use planning in Oregon’s wildland urban interface. 

Design by Fire is dedicated to advancing sustainable forms of architecture, planning and land use policy in the face of increased regional fires and drought. Among our primary goals is to advance expansive, cross-disciplinary archeological and archival approaches to site analysis of fire and fire-prone landscapes to determine how best to restore and/or (re)inhabit sites. The project explores translational frameworks for public engagement and cross-disciplinary research dedicated to protecting wildland urban interfaces, forests and communities in the face of climate change. We are driven by an urgent need to serve, to address extreme weather predicaments locally, regionally and globally—by making existing and emergent fire research actionable to broader publics through research, as well as creative and curated formats. The project is led by practitioners and academics who analyze and build environments—from architects to ecologists, fire researchers, geographers and public artists—who are dedicated to planning for fire and extreme weather. This project is itself a case study in knowledge creation/sharing for similar and future climate-based predicaments. Design by Fire is the first exploration of a project we are developing in parallel called Translational Spatial Practices, which explores climate action where we practice (Cascadia, Great Lakes and Piedmont Atlantic megaregions). 

This workshop addresses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, Sustainable Cities and Communities (Goal 11), Responsible Consumption and Production (Goal 12), Climate Action (Goal 13), Life on Land (Goal 15) and Partnerships for the Goals (Goal 17).   /   Reference: https://sdgs.un.org/goals  

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Meeting ID: 963 9818 5526   |   Passcode: 160720

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Meeting ID: 963 9818 5526
Find your local number: https://udmercy-edu.zoom.us/u/ad2zACngOY

Workshop Leaders: Keif Schleifer & Laura Foxman 

 
Keif Schleifer, Kennesaw State University CACM (Marietta, GA) 

Keif is a faculty member of Kennesaw State University's Department of Architecture, where she teaches studio and history/theory/criticism courses. As a practitioner, Keif leads KSDesign Collaborative (KSDC), a creative social practice that provides technical, architectural, and public-use design solutions. The collaborative has completed hundreds of works across a range of platforms in the U.S. and Central America that facilitate community empowerment opportunities, direct engagement, asset-utilization strategies, public art, architecture, and tactical urbanism. Keif’s design work focuses on public safety, systems/infrastructures, building mechanics and structural integrity. In the military, she served as a Firefighter/Medic in Aviation Crash/Fire/Rescue tasked with combating Class D (Metals) fires and wildland fire suppression when aerial assets were engaged; and performed medical, communications, and command & control services. As a firefighter/EMT in the civilian sector, Keif worked on structural fires, safety for large public events, wildland-urban interface fire suppression and hazardous materials fires. She continues to volunteer on disaster/relief efforts. Her past efforts range from medical assistance in rural Zambian communities to contingency planning for annual flooding in the U.S. to assisting in rescue and recovery at NYC’s Twin Towers/Ground Zero in the immediate aftermath of September 11. She is a Georgia Master Naturalist trained through the UGA Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources and UGA Cooperative Extension.   

Laura Foxman, UD Mercy SACD & Wayne State University (Detroit, MI) 

Laura Foxman (RA, NCARB, LEED) founded We Are All Collage (WAAC), an innovative interdisciplinary architecture and design practice based in Michigan and Oregon. WAAC collaborates with a wide range of creative experts across disciplines in making architectures, environments and cultural works that celebrate personal and public experience. Recently completed works include a landwork/playscape and an outdoor/indoor furniture collection. WAAC's ongoing projects include Design by Fire; The Listening Archive, an audiovisual history of musical listening and arts nonprofit; and the Modern Architecture Network, a digital humanities project that visualizes architecture from 1850 to the present as a collective endeavor and celebrates histories of women and marginalized architects. 

Laura teaches at Wayne State University and UD Mercy, both in Detroit—in architecture, design and urbanism. Previously she taught at Penn State and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in NYC. She has been recognized with grants and fellowships from the International Federation of Housing and Planning, the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, Penn State, Reed College and Wayne State, among other organizations.  

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