Research and teaching at the Technical University of Dresden...

After having been granted Faculty Development Leave by my colleagues, I began working with Professor Ralf Weber, Chair of Spatial Design, Faculty of Architecture, Technical University of Dresden for the spring semester in 2004. 

Through the sponsorship of the KSU Faculty of Architecture, and the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Commission) I received a research and teaching grant as “Gastprofessor to the Chair for Spatial Design” with the responsibilities of teaching and personal research.  This award carried with it a stipend of $10,000.00.

While in Dresden I developed and taught a course entitled “Orchestration of Space.”  The course was based on concurrent research in spatial perception in architecture and urban design.  The experience provided the opportunity to develop concepts that had been dormant or in development for many years.  The opportunity to read widely in the field, explore old and new ideas regarding the psychology of space, and to apply these ideas immediately in the classroom environment was invaluable.  I now have a series of lectures that are used in the studio. 

Topics included are perception and illusion, limitations of human physiology in perception, characteristics of static and dynamic perception of space, and an analytical methodology that is based on these principles. 

In the future, I hope to offer an elective seminar with selected readings, discussion, field testing,  and a mini-studio to test the ideas through design.