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Alan Balfour

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File:Alan Balfour at AA.jpg
Alan Balfour at Architects Association, 1994

Alan Balfour (born 1939 in Edinburgh, Scotland) is a writer, academic and education leader who has been Dean at the leading architecture schools in the US and UK including the Georgia Tech College of Architecture, Rice University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and chairman of Architectural Association School of Architecture. He had held faculty positions at MIT and Harvard.

Early life and education

Balfour was born in Edinburgh in March 1939. He attended The Royal High School in Edinburgh. He studied architecture at the Edinburgh College of Art in 1961 (now part of Edinburgh University) where he was awarded the Edinburgh Silver Medal for Civic Design.

He was a graduate student in architecture at Princeton University on a Fulbright Scholarship. He was taught by architects including Louis Kahn, Michael Graves, and Peter Eisenman, but the most lasting influences were the teaching philosopher Arthur Szathmary, urban sociologist Gerald Breese, and sociologist Marion Levy. He received a Master of Fine Arts Degree in 1965.

Career

In 1970 he joined the staff of Arthur D. Little. He was associated director in a HUD-funded evaluation of "Project Rehab", which looked at the results of housing rehabilitation in 14 cities. From 1972–1974 he part of the Solar Climate Control Industry Study, led by solar engineer Peter Glaser.

In 1974 he taught a graduate studio at MIT based on the ADL research. Following this he was asked to manage the Architecture Education Study (AES), a  project of MIT and Harvard for the Consortium of Eastern Schools of Architecture. Its objective was to strengthen and to some degree rationalize the teaching of architecture. He saw the project to its conclusion and the results published.

In 1977–89 he was director of the graduate program at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. He initiated a program that invited emerging architects to work with the students in building an experimental structure. Among those involved were Bernard Tschumi and Daniel Libeskind; one of the results was the construction of John Hejduk’s Houses of Suicide.

From 1989–1991 he was the William Ward Watkin Dean of Architecture at Rice University in Houston Texas.      

From 1991–1995 Balfour redesigned the Architectural Association's annual publications and was its publisher. In 1991, he was elected Chairman of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. In his tenure at the AA he recruited design teachers such as Ben van Berkel and Farshid Moussavi. He appointed theorist Jeff Kipnis to establish and lead the Graduate Design Program, and philosopher Mark Cousins to lead the doctoral program in History and Theory.

Topaz Medalian Winners – Alan Balfour with Peter Eisenman

He returned to the United States in 1996, and was Dean of the School of Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), from 1996–2007. He played a central role in the development of EMPAC, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center.

Balfour was awarded the Topaz Medallion for architectural education in 2000.

In 2008 he returned to Georgia Tech as Dean of the College of Design, retiring in 2013, when he was named Advisory Professor in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai.

Author

A constant theme in all of Balfour’s writing is the relationship between the physical character of cities and their buildings, as well as prevalent desires in the culture. He views all man-made reality as landscapes of desire. This is seen at its most developed in the books Berlin:  Politics of Order and Solomon ‘s Temple.

Books

  • PORTSMOUTH (Studio Vista, London, 1970
  • ROCKEFELLER CENTER, Architecture as Theater, (McGraw-Hill, 1978)
  • BERLIN: The Politics of Order: 1737–1989; (Rizzoli 1990) This and the later book on the city, received AIA International Book Awards
  • BERLIN, World City (Academy Editions London, and Ernst & Sohn, Berlin, 1995)
  • SHANGHAI, (Wiley/Academy, 2000)
  • NEW YORK, (Wiley/Academy, 2001)
  • CREATING A SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT introduction by David McCrone (Finlay Brown, Edinburgh, 2005)
  • Solomon's Temple: Myth, Conflict, and Faith (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)
  • THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM, Preserving the Past Controlling the Future (Wiley-Blackwell, 2019)
  • CLASSICAL EDINBURGH, A City Divided (Anthem Press, 2023)

Articles and essays

Key Essays

  • Recovering Landscape edited with James Corner, Princeton Architectural Press, Princeton, 1999.
  • Contributions to Cities of Artificial Excavation: The Work of Peter Eisenman 1978–1988, CCA Montreal, Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 1994.
  • Contributions to The Edge of the Millennium Whitney Library of Design, New York, 1993.
  • Berlin: The Politics of Order, 1737- 1989, Rizzoli, New York, 1990. Winner of the AIA International Book Award, 1991.
  • Contributions to Contemporary Architects, St. Martins Press, New York, 1984, revised 1987.
  • Architectural Education Study, MIT, Boston, 1981, editor.
  • Contributions to Breakthrough to the Hudson, Ottinger Foundation, New York, 1964.

Articles and Other Writing

  • Contributions to Breakthrough to the Hudson, (designed by Ladislav Sutnar) Ottinger Foundation, New York, 1964.
  • Solar Energy and Survival ON SITE ON ENERGY, Site Inc. Y 1974
  • Captive of Love and Ignorance Architectural Education Study, MIT, Boston, 1981
  • The High Museum The Architectural Review February 1984
  • Contributions to Contemporary Architects, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1984, revised 1987(essays on John Hedjuk, James Polchek
  • On the Characteristics and Beliefs of the Architect. JAE Journal of Architectural Education Volume 2/40 Jubilee 1987
  • Hot House or Madhouse Martin Pawley British Vogue August 1992
  • Spiritual Constructions The Edge of the Millennium Whitney Library of Design, New York, 1993.
  • Documents of a Creative Process Cities of Artificial Excavation: The Work of Peter Eisenman 1978–1988, CCA Montreal, Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 1994
  • Architecture for a New Nation in Bioclimatic Architecture Ken Yeang, Singapore 1994
  • Effect OVERLOAD, HDA Dokumente zur Architektur 7. Graz 1996
  • Studio Works: 4 Approaches. Harvard University Graduate School, 1996
  • What is Public Landscape Recovering Landscape edited with James Corner, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999
  • The Walls of Jerusalem Ajman International Urban Planning Conference, City and Security Ajman UAE 2013
  • Shanghai and Berlin TA Time +Architecture (A journal of Tongji University, Shanghai) 2014/3
  • Dreams in Reality TA Time +Architecture 2014/4
  • Reading Berlin World Architectural Festival, Berlin 216  
  • Mendelsohn and  the Center for Creative Arts: University City, St Louis in Invisible,  Heather Woofter  Sung Ho Kim,  2023
  • Enigma Variations an introduction to White Compositions relief sculpture by Anthony Ames, 2024  

Videos

  • Peter Eisenman – In Conversation with Alan Balfour AA School of Architecture 1993 www.youtube.com
  • Six Modern Landscapes Part 3 – Alan Balfour, Denis Cosgrove, Adrien Hemming, James Corner.  1995  www.youtube.com
  • Reading Berlin Alan Balfour's seminar on Berlin opens the second day of World Architecture Festival 2016 www.youtube.com

References


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