Currently, there are a lot of issues surrounding the engineering culture regarding its rigidity, exclusiveness, and dissonance between end users of engineered systems and the engineers themselves. For this project, we are focusing on the ways that these issues and the Acopian Engineering Center specifically impact the engineering culture at Lafayette. The goal of this project is to address the cultural of engineering education by introducing art into Acopian. Using art to promote changes in environment and culture is a common trend. Our work can fit within the larger context of creative placemaking, which focuses on the benefits of “partners from public, private, non-profit, and community sectors strategically [shaping] the physical and social character of a [place] around arts and cultural activities. Creative placemaking animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures, […] and brings diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired,” (Markusen and Gadwa, 2010, p. 3). In our case, we hope to use art to shift towards a more inclusive and interdisciplinary environment. To accomplish this, we interviewed a wide range of community members about their impressions of the culture, the aesthetics of Acopian, and their interests in our design, which we will discuss in further detail in our political context/methodology section.
The Acopian Engineering Center is the hub to the four engineering disciplines and computer science; therefore, a majority of these students spend the bulk of their time either in classes or studying here throughout the day. It is the only academic building that is accessible 24 hours to these students, as well. Despite its popularity for studying and working on group projects, it is still viewed as one of the most “dreadful” and “miserable” buildings according to a recently conducted survey composed of Lafayette engineering students.
To the students that were surveyed, compared to other academic buildings on campus, Acopian lacks open spaces, welcoming features, natural lighting, windows, and rooms for collaboration. The lack of these aspects pose a problem for Lafayette students. Scott Hummel stated that, “The Acopian Engineering Center was built for functionality, not to be the most aesthetically pleasing building on this campus” ( as cited in Blake, Hansen-Kemp & Millar, 2017). Acopian was built with the purpose of providing students with an academic space to do work instead of figuring out a way to create the best environment possible for its students’ success. Due to this, students are forced to try to maneuver not only through the already rigid and exclusive engineering discipline but also, the dullness that Acopian presents.
We aim to implement an art installation on the exterior wall of Acopian (facing Markle Hall) that will encourage collaboration, inclusivity, and interdisciplinary study within its walls. Our first step towards generating a design was to take the temperature of our community and find out what basic elements might be important to them. Students have made clear that light and open space are two of the most important factors that they consider when looking for a study space (Student 3, 2018). Understanding that we do not have the resources to alter the structure of Acopian, our challenge was to explore ways in which we could achieve an environment similar to that of Skillman Library or Oechsle Center for Global Education by enhancing the built environment with art. For example, our Engineering/Art student panel made two suggestions: using plants (Student 1, 2018) and using color (Student 2, 2018).
After speaking with engineering, art, and psychology students and professors, we have generated three design alternatives. The first is a mural with a “cutaway” design. In other words, painted on the wall will be images of the interior of the building, as if we have torn away the brick and are looking directly into Acopian. However, what is being depicted inside will be unconventional. For example, there will be a classroom full of plants; there may be a classroom of students doing yoga, making art, or cooking; there will be a classroom of students operating advanced robots. Eli Cooper, a senior Mechanical Engineering and Studio Art double major, suggested depicting actual student or professor projects, which would be a great way to incorporate the achievements of our Engineering Department into the work. Other elements that we have been prompted to consider include using moving parts or using glow in the dark paint so that the image transforms at night when many engineering students are still in Acopian working (Student 1, 2018).
The second design alternative also uses painted panels, but not in the form of a mural. This design involves cutting and painting smaller panels, and then backlighting them with colored light. This will provide an even greater effect at night, which is, again, when engineers and other students continue to study in Acopian. The final design alternative also uses light, but rather than having any paintings, incorporates plants as a sculptural element. This alternative could also have some continuity with an interior installation by implementing colored light and a vertical garden into a room inside Acopian.
Our group considered several constraints during the process of creating a solution to the engineering culture at Lafayette through the application of art. From a physical standpoint we cannot alter the structure of Acopian. Proposals of that scale include planning, labor, materials, and time but a goal for our project includes restricting unnecessary costs and a reasonable completion schedule. So, our group initially was limited to working on the facade of Acopian and using the exterior as our canvas. This presented another challenge regarding the many small windows spanning across the wall. The windows must be incorporated into the design since they cannot be removed because our group wants to keep as much natural light accessible to the users of the building. The next set of challenges involved the features of our art piece. First, we wanted to create a piece of art that begins to let the community members on campus view Acopian as part of the interdisciplinary culture that Lafayette college presents. However, keeping the professional features inherent to Engineering are also important. The curriculum of engineering is taxing and graduation in this field is difficult. The hard effort and time students devote to engineering at Lafayette usually results in some form of post-graduation advancement. Ensuring the student’s hard work is displayed appropriately and represents the determination required for the major is important. This does not mean engineering cannot be fun. The art should allow exploration of various activities with the technical and creative mindset that Acopian could provide. The other constraint regarding components of our art piece is the need to update or change our mural as time moves on. The interests surrounding our current time period and students might not be the same 50 years from now. A piece of art that relates to multiple generations is important for the significance of our piece to continue in the future. So, deciding between updating the art or using one idea that also connects to future generations was a challenge. The last constraint involved the community. All of the end users like the students, professors, administrators, or even prospective students and families should be incorporated into our design and application process. Our solution uses art as a medium to begin the conversation surrounding the culture of engineering at Lafayette. If the art piece does not resonate with the intended audience, the meaning is lost from the beginning.
These challenges create an exciting opportunity to better the quality of Acopian and lives of students. One of the major ways in which we have strived to tackle these challenges is through the use of stakeholder panels. By using a set of questions geared towards learning opinion, suggestion, and concern of various students and professors across many disciplines, we isolate recurring concerns and discover new ones that, perhaps, stakeholders did not realize were shared problems.
Using interviews, we discovered a sentiment shared by many alumni that has bearing on Acopian’s stress issue. According to these alumni, they were cognizant of the high stress and anxiety levels within Acopian, especially the levels of students in the building late at night and early in the morning before classes. They, however, did not view this as a problem. To them and their experience over four years, the stress and anxiety were indelible constants of Acopian’s engineering and computer science education; the emotions were to the building as peanut butter is to jelly, expected to fall hand in hand with the other more often than not. These stress and anxiety levels are in no way a definite part of the education, and through diligence and effort can be affected to improve.
On the technical end, there is concern, for instance, of how the mural will age. This is meant in the same way that a mural painted in the 1970’s will seem out of date in the 21st century; the styles of clothing, art, technology represented by the mural will be representative of the time painted, but will not translate into the future. Our panel boards mounted on top of the exterior brick acts as a solution to this challenge. With them, we have the ability to change the mural over time. Panels can be removed, repainted or replaced to create new images to better reflect the needs and sentiments of the time.
The purpose of this report is twofold: first, we wish to communicate the information that we have uncovered in our extensive interview process. Second, we will flesh out the three design alternatives that we have generated from those interviews. As we have begun to explain, all designs fulfill some desires from stakeholders but also have unique sets of challenges. Our goal is to thoroughly outline the advantages and disadvantages of each in the hopes that we lay a strong foundation for this project to be carried on. With additional resources and time, we believe an alternative can be chosen and seen through to implementation.
To read more about the social context of our project, click here.