Research & Innovation
What does research mean in art, architecture, and design?
What we see affects everything that we are. Art, architecture, and design research and creative practice manifests in explorations that are formal, material, speculative, scholarly, applied, investigative, and experimental. It results in partnerships, in fashion design lines, in books and essays, in exhibitions and interventions, in entrepreneurial ventures, in patented technologies, in buildings, cityscapes, and landscapes. Sam Fox School faculty, staff, and students advance new ways of making sense of the world.
Penina Acayo Laker, Malaria Symptom Cards.
How does the Sam Fox School research impact communities?
Art, architecture, and design has an immediate and lasting impact on communities—politically, structurally, economically, and personally. We are deeply committed to collaborating with partners in the St. Louis community and beyond on research that has a positive impact around the globe.
Learn about our recent initiatives through our Office for Socially Engaged Practice.
SELECT COMMUNITY PARTNERS & PROJECTS
- Pulitzer Arts Foundation
- University City Public Art Series
- The Alberti Program
- Lambert Arts & Culture Initiative
- CityStudioSTL
- Barnes-Jewish Hospital
- NIH Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL)
Left: Sung Ho Kim, Silver Tower, 2020. Conceptual residential/commercial design for Novack Construction + Development.
How does the Sam Fox School research intersect with other disciplines?
At times, the nature of art, architecture, and design is to address common ideas from an uncommon vantage point. To approach a topic with radically different questions. To spark inquisitiveness from a viewer, a participant. To provoke more engaged participation. Some explorations arrive at an application, a solution. Others arrive at better questions for our time. Our research embraces diverse ideas from other fields and invents new pathways for cross-disciplinary engagement.
- Race + Ethnicity
- Sustainability + Environmental Resiliency
- Grief
- Capitalism + Colonialism
- Design Futures
- Architectural History
- Gender
- Visual Culture
- Medicine
- Climate Change
- Public Health
- Urban Infrastructure + Ecologies
- Collective Memory
- Women, Sexuality, + Gender
- The Nature of the Body
- Social Justice
- Economies of Urban Decay
- Materiality
- Urban Segregation
- Time
- The History of Illustration
- Autonomous + Technological Futures
- American Culture
- Historic Preservation
- Film & Media
- The Cosmos
- Entrepreneurship + Innovation
Research Spotlights
Select Faculty Exhibitions and Permanent Collections
- The Whitney Biennial
- MoMA
- PS1
- Crystal Bridges Museum
- MASS MoCA
- Museum of Contemporary Photography
- Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
- The New Museum
- Venice Biennale
Image: Amy Hauft, “Period Room.” Photo: Aaron Eigler.
Notable Faculty Grants and Fellowships
MacDowell Fellowship / New York Foundation for the Arts Grant / Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant / National Endowment for the Arts Grant / Louis Comfort Tiffany Award / Yaddo Residency / UCLA Design Media Arts Center Residency / Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship / Pew Fellowship / Howard Foundation Fellowship
Faculty Publications
Architecture Monographs
Louis I. Kahn, Robert McCarter
On and By Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert McCarter
Lina Bo Bardi: Drawings, Zeuler Lima
Art & Design Theory
Taking Possession: The Politics of Memory in a St. Louis Town House, Heidi Kolk
The Black Experience in Design, co-authored and edited by Penina Acayo Laker
Stick Figures: Drawing as Human Practice, D.B. Dowd
Architectural Theory
Infrastructural Optimism, Linda Samuels
Designing the Modern City: Urbanism Since 1850, Eric Mumford
Modern Architecture and the Lifeworld: Essays in Honor of Kenneth Frampton, Robert McCarter
Rebuilding the American City, Patty Heyda and Mason White
Segregation by Design: Conversations and Calls for Action in St. Louis Catalina Freixas + Mark Abbott
Children’s Books
Shooting at the Stars, John Hendrix
Drawing is Magic, John Hendrix
John Brown and His Fight for Freedom, John Hendrix
More Than Fluff, Madeline Valentine
Graphic Novels, Graphic Nonfiction, Comics & Zines
The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler, John Hendrix
The Bystander Anthology, co-edited by Shreyas R Krishnan
Spartan Holiday, D.B. Dowd
Amazing Facts & Beyond (with Leon Beyond), Dan Zettwoch + Kevin Huizenga
About the Sam Fox School Office of Research & Innovation
We work with faculty and students to define projects, seek funding, and identify partnerships. We also partner with external organizations on research initiatives. Our mission is to generate new knowledge, encourage entrepreneurship, and promote interdisciplinary collaborations in architecture, design, and visual arts at Washington University in St. Louis.
Partner with Us
If you are interested in sponsoring a specific research initiative, project, course, or other creative activity, please contact Chad Henry, director of the Office of Research & Innovation to discuss. We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with individuals, corporations, and organizational sponsors.