ROWLETT WORKSHOP + DESIGN CHARRETTE

Date Range:

March 24, 2026 to March 24, 2026

Event Type:

Authorized

Location:

Langford Architecture Bldg A

Description:

ROWLETT WORKSHOP + DESIGN CHARRETTE
The tentative title is Rowlett Workshop + Design Charrette -- Cross-Pollinating Art & Science: An SOM-Led Exploration of Integrated Design
An immersive, interdisciplinary workshop inspired by the 2026 Rowlett Lecture, where students and professionals collaborate with SOM to blend artistic vision and scientific rigor. By engaging in hands-on learning, environmental analysis, digital fabrication, and AI tools, participants create resilient, efficient, low-carbon design strategies shaping the future of integrated practice.

Leveraging insights from the 2026 Rowlett Lecture, The Integration of Art & Science in Architecture: Cross-Pollination and Innovation, this intensive workshop immerses students and industry professionals in the collaborative processes architects and engineers need to master to address today's global challenges. Led by the SOM team, the workshop explores a real-world competition project that shows how artistic ambition and scientific precision actively converge to create efficient, resilient, and resource-conscious design solutions.
Participants will participate in hands-on tutorials and focused micro-lectures that demonstrate how structural engineering influences form, how simulation and environmental analytics improve performance, and how materials science, digital fabrication, and AI support durable, low-carbon solutions. Working together in interdisciplinary teams, students and professionals will develop strategies to increase efficiency, reduce embodied and operational carbon, optimize resource use, and design for long-term adaptability.
The workshop highlights integrated practice as crucial for tackling the scale, scope, and complexity of the built environment. It shows how innovation happens when the lines between design and engineering, intuition and computation, craft, and science blend into a collaborative problem-solving culture. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how to synthesize diverse forms of expertise, use evidence-based decision-making, and create architecture that lasts--performing beautifully, responsibly, and resiliently in a rapidly changing world.

Contact Information:

Jennifer Robertson
Architecture
9798451015
jrobertson@arch.tamu.edu