HEATHER LIGLER

Arc 2304
Architectural Design IV
[coordinator; spring 2024]
Florida Atlantic University
School of Architecture

Through a series of analytical and architectural design exercises, this second-year undergraduate design studio focuses on the interpretation and analysis of structural systems and their application in various design exercises and on the relationship between the human body/site/climate and architectural form.

Arc 3320
Architectural Design V
[coordinator; fall 2023, 2024]
Florida Atlantic University
School of Architecture

This third-year undergraduate design studio focuses on the use of basic principles of design that reflect meaningful concepts related to use, materials, structure, experience and surrounding physical and social context. This includes developing environmentally responsive solutions to regional climatic conditions, working at architectural scales from the detail to the landscape.

Remix Rowhouse
Directed Research Studio
[spring 2023]
Pennsylvania State University
Stuckeman School

Remix Rowhouse (a vertical, fourth and fifth-year undergraduate design studio) focused on engaging the logic of housing typologies and their urban implications toward regenerative design proposals for the refabrication of an existing block of row houses in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A primary basis of the studio was a motivation to learn to think computationally to develop resourceful affordable housing models through the imaginative transformation of building stock in lieu of demolition, while a secondary interest was to investigate how a framework of analysis-synthesis feedback loops would reinforce a move from linear to circular design processes in the studio.

Arch 232
Architectural Design II
[spring 2021, 2022]
Pennsylvania State University
Stuckeman School

The second-year design studio sequence culminates with the NCMA competition (National Concrete Masonry Association). The program is typically conceived to be medium in scale, sited in a dense urban environment, and conducive to the use of concrete masonry units as a primary material. The NCMA grant generously funds the project and prize money for winning students. 

Arch 231
Architectural Design I
[fall 2020, 2021, 2022]
Pennsylvania State University
Stuckeman School

The second-year design studio introduces students to diverse design issues such as program, site, context, circulation, accessibility, facade design, materiality, life safety, structural systems, and sustainability in the design and making of architecture. Precedent analysis will constitute a critical component of this process. Particular attention is given to the development of appropriate and meaningful architectural concepts, spatial composition, architectonics (choice of, and connections between materials) and the introduction of technological/structural considerations at the inception of the design process.

Arch 6040
Advanced Architectural Design / 
Portman Prize Studio
[spring 2020]
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Architecture

The 2020 Portman Prize Studio, Re-Source: Architectural Experiments in Radical Re-Use and Regenerative Buildings, explores regenerative building, an approach to the conception, design development, and technical specification of architecture that seeks to radically reduce its consumption of raw material and non-renewable energy resources throughout the building lifecycle and reshape design practice to ameliorate the current degradation of global environmental health. The main vision for this graduate studio was led by Portman Visiting Critic Alan Organschi. My section, ALT/ALT, specifically speculates on how an alternative, multi-generational neighborhood (considering everyone from kids to seniors) can be activated in our current decomposition and recomposition of the site – as well as how our practice can make long-term, positive impacts that can inspire future cycles of redevelopment. The program considers how the arts community, installations, performances, and pop-up events have stimulated recent interest in South Downtwon, Atlanta - particularly on South Broad - and the studio will strategize how to develop and sustain a neighborhood for on-going creative revitalization.