Jefferson to Celebrate Design Across Disciplines at DesignPhiladelphia

Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University) will once again sponsor and be a key contributor to DesignPhiladelphia, the citywide celebration of design across disciplines from Oct. 3-13.

The festival will highlight the work of thousands of local designers, architects and creative professionals to demonstrate Philadelphia’s reemergence as a 21st-century city shaped by thoughtful design, collaborative business practices and community engagement.

“Jefferson is the perfect sponsor for DesignPhiladelphia,” said Rachel Brandoff, assistant professor and coordinator of the art therapy specialization at Jefferson, who will facilitate the Art Therapy Introductory Workshop as part of the festival. “This University embraces collaboration among professions and the partnerships that come out of the arts and healthcare. In essence, art therapy as a field is a merging of healthcare and the arts.”

Another DesignPhiladelphia exhibit, Air Forms: Kites as Adaptive Surfaces, showcases collaborative student projects from the IDEA (Interdisciplinary Design and Experimental Architecture) Studio of Jefferson.

“The work represents our innovative design thinking and collaborative culture, bridging education and practice,” said Kihong Ku, associate professor of architecture and Volpe Family Term Chair for Architectural Innovation.

This semester, Ku and Marcia Weiss, associate professor of textile design at Jefferson and director of the Fashion and Textile Futures Center, brought together 12 M.S. in textile design and 13 fifth-year architecture students to design “air forms,” envisioning radical architectures that transcend the conventions of kite design, rigid architecture and static structures, and textile design