John Abell, PhD, M Arch, AIA
Associate Professor, Architecture
Educational Background
- PhD., Histories and Theories of Modern Architecture, The Architectural Association, London, England, 2006.
- M Arch., University of Utah. 1985.
- BS., Natural Resource Economics, University of Vermont, 1982.
Research Interests
Professor Abell specializes in integrative architectural design, interdisciplinary urban design, and critical theory particularly as these intersect with aesthetic experience, material craft and advanced design technologies. Specific research topics are as follows.
- Design empathy and psychoanalytic theory explaining the design preferences of the architect, the user and the group, and how these overlap in design practices and in the trafficking of architectural objects: atmospherics, environment-behavior relationships, form and formlessness, freedom and constraint, simulation and fantasy, identity and mimesis, the new and tradition.
- Community based urban architectural design investigations integrating public health, ecology, and social capital, design information modeling and visual preferencing methods in neighborhood planning and design initiatives and decision making: evidence based design, smart growth, new urbanism, recombinant urbanism.
- Theories and histories of modern design thinking, practice and programming emphasizing design innovation and optimization in social contexts: creative-discursive research, rhetorical investigative practices, generative processes, modeling material behaviors, analogical and digital modeling methods and technologies, prototyping methods, algorithmic and parametric design modeling, semi-hierarchical systems, recursivity, systems theory.
- Design modeling-representation-experimentation hybrids in which architectural design figures both as a noun and a verb, a thing-object and activity-research: Urban Design, Landscape Urbanism, Interior Architecture, Architectural Engineering, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Brand Space, Media Studies.
Teaching Interests
Design disciplines like Architecture are uniquely positioned at the intersection of art, science and culture and teaching in the Interdisciplinary Design Institute involves these intersecting concerns. In teaching, Professor Abell cultivates an advanced understanding of the interdisciplinary and integrative conditions for design and the skills for modeling and explaining design issues and opportunities in social, technological and creative practice based contexts. Professor Abell has twenty years of experience teaching design studios and theory courses.
- Studio courses: Design Representation, Arch 101, Fall 2010, Fall 2009; Arch 4o3 Spokane Design Studio, Spring 2007, Spring 2009; Spokane Graduate Design Studios, Arch 57o-571, 2007, 2008; Arch 511-513, 2002-2007.
- Theory courses: Dissertation Proposal Planning, DESGN 565, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Directed Reading, DESGN 563, Spring 2010, Fall 2010; Research Practicum, DESGN 570 Spring 2010, Fall 2010; Cultures of Design: Modeling: Representing, Experimenting, DESGN 598, Fall 2010, Fall 2009. Design Connecting Community Development, Environmental Sustainability and Public Health, Arch/ID/LA 56o, Fall 2010, Fall 2009. Advanced Tectonics, ARCH 531, Spring 2010, Fall 2009 – Fall 2004. Architecture Research Methods and Programming, Arch 515, 2002-2007.
Recent Accomplishments
- Abell, John. “Architectural Envelopment and the Late Avant-garde: The New, Critical Mimesis, and Identification,” book chapter in With Silence Implying Sound, An Anthology of Architecture Theory, Quarterly Architecture Essay (QAE), editor Daniel Pavlovits, 2010.
- Abell, John. “That Oceanic Feeling: Architectural Formlessness, Otherness and Being Everything,” book chapter in With Silence Implying Sound, An Anthology of Architecture Theory, Quarterly Architecture Essay (QAE), editor Daniel Pavlovits, 2010.
- Abell, John. “Logos, Ethos, Pathos, and Ecos: Neighborhood Housing Design Research and Development” Metropolitan Universities Journal, Ed., Roger Munger, (Indianapolis, Indiana University-Purdue University (IUPUI), Volume 21, Issue 2, 2010.
- AIA National Architecture Week Architecture Installation Design and Exhibition with Architecture students and Spokane Chapter American Institute of Architects (AIA) installation exhibit for AIA National Architecture Week, April 11-17, 2010, co-director of project with Spokane Chapter AIA project directors.
- East Sprague Business Association (ESBA), Impact Capital and Spokane Neighborhood Action Program (SNAP), Spokane International District design advisory committee, 2009-2010.
