TYLER ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS with SRDJAN JOVANOVIC WEISS, Assistant Professor at Temple University open an exhibit of their research held at the Center for Architecture gallery in Philadelphia entitled:

FANTASTICAL ASPECTS OF SOCIALIST ARCHITECTURE

organized by IFRAA/AIA panel & TEMPLE UNIVERSITY

WHEN: Preview: August 17th, 6-8 pm

EVENT/ROUNDTABLE: September 10th, 6:30-8:30

WHERE: 1218 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA

EXHIBITION TITLE: Fantastical

Aspects of Socialist Architecture

CONTACT: Srdjan Weiss / srdjan@templ

e.edu / +1.646.209.8486

Tyler_Architecture student research will include work by research students (now graduates): Christine Bilsky, Phuoc Do, Jason Flax, Sondra Gawlikowski, Desiree Guastella, Yongbeom Lee, James Mckenna, Gwen Prinsen, Jonathan Saccoccio, Keith Stauffer, Michael Villegas & Hiroyuki Watanabe, and by design students: Alicia Beers, Jared Blake, Jonathan Carpinteyro, Monica Demetrius, Danielle Fontaine, Christopher Kulp, Suzanne Mahoney, Kyle Maylath, Tyler Mittnacht, Sarah Rushing, Per Sandstrom, Timothy Sheehan & Nicholas Wan.

Fantastical Aspects of Socialist Architecture is an exhibition documenting the ongoing academic research of Tyler_Architecturestudents in Philadelphia researching architectural aspects triggered by relations between socialist ideology and contemporary spirituality. During the advanced research studio with Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, the final year students at Tyler’s Architecture department at Temple University mapped the array of Socialist, leftist or quasi Socialist production of architectural monuments worldwide. Tyler_Architecture students then explored, visually articulated and fantastically designed the space surrounding the political spun that Barack Obama, the current US President, is "a Socialist". The result of this approach is a fantastical architecture of World-wide Socialist architecture. By redesigning the grounds of the Camp David Presidential Retreat, the exhibition also brings fantastical speculation of “what if” Socialism ever took ground in the US.

The exhibition will be installed from August 17th until September 10 at the AIA's Center for Architecture, Philadelphia. The Roundtable Socialism & Spirituality, with guests from AIA's IFRAA section and Tyler_Architecture students and faculty is planned as a closing event for the exhibition. It will take place at the Center for Architecture on September 10, from 6-9 pm. The participation is free. The exhibition Fantastical Aspects of Socialist Architecture is produced by AIA Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA) and Tyler_Architecture, Temple University, Philadelphia. A research booklet produced by Tyler_Architecture student

s with eponymous name is available here: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/fantastical-aspects-of-socialist-architecture/11601245?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/2

The mission of Tyler Architecture at Temple University is to educate design professionals in relation to contemporary democratic world. While acquiring the fundamental skills and knowledge of the discipline, the students participate in critical discourse about architecture as a situated physical, spatial, cultural, social and material practice. www.temple.edu/architecture

Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss is an Associate Professor at Tyler_Architecture, Temple University, founder of Normal Architecture Office (NAO) based in Philadelphia and a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths College, University of London. www.thenao.net

All pictures presented in this exhibition are fantastical and fictional. Used solely as an educational experimental tool they bare no links to any personal nor political representation in society, politics, personality and media of any kind.