Topic: College of Architecture and Planning

July 6, 2011

New York City's Michael Silver topped an international field of candidates to secure the inaugural Design Innovation Fellowship within Ball State University's College of Architecture and Planning (CAP). He will lead a series of graduate and undergraduate topics studios and seminars during the 2011-12 academic year.

Specializing in the relationship between technology and design practice, Silver currently directs a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary design practice involving mathematicians, computer scientists, engineers and others in the production of furniture, consumer products and websites as well as buildings. He has taught previously at Cornell University and Yale University and also is a former faculty fellow at the University of Michigan and Ohio State University.

"The Design Innovation Fellowship is intended to bring an emerging and cutting-edge designer to campus each year, not only infusing fresh energy into the department but also enhancing the reputation of our institution as one that redefines architectural design, education, practice and research," explained Mahesh Daas, chairman of the Department of Architecture. He added that, as an experimental collaborative, Silver's firm "is deeply committed to the precise alignment of advanced technology, environmental design, poetic consciousness, architectural theory, academic scholarship and the logistics of building construction. The variety and scale of his work should inform significantly that of many of our students in the coming months. It's going to be an exciting year."

In addition to his academic associations, Silver has held professional posts with IM Pei Architects, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill New York, Stan Allen Architect and Reiser+Umemoto. He is the author of numerous books and articles including "Mapping in the Age of Digital Media" (Wiley & Sons, 2003) and the upcoming "Programming Cultures."

The New Museum of Contemporary Art in Manhattan has featured his designs, as have the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Architecture League and Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.

Silver earned his master's degree in building design from Columbia University and a bachelor of architecture from the Pratt Institute.