Kyna Leski has served as the Architecture department’s head and graduate program director and as chief critic of the European Honors Program. She plays a formative role in the beginning education for architecture students at RISD. The pedagogy she developed recognizes ideas that emerge from making and engagement with material, intentions from a reiterative process and development of a syntactic architectural language, from material through architectonic and spatial order. One iteration of this pedagogy is showcased in the book The Making of Design Principles. She has taught in the Architecture, Experimental and Foundation Studies and Industrial Design departments and was a visiting professor at the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China. More recently Leski has developed experimental studios that draw upon capacities associated with artists as agents of invention and action in addressing the crisis being played out on our global shorelines. These studios have operated as collaborations with scientists, environmentalists, dancers and musicians.
3SIXØ Architecture is Leski’s award-winning professional partnership with Chris Bardt. Recent 3SIXØ projects include Brown University’s Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship, Community Music Works and several residences.
Leski’s design for a house of visual shadows was awarded first place out of 480 entries in the Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition. She serves on the board of Architexx, a nonprofit organization for gender equity in architecture, and has served as the city architect design decision review advisor to the mayor of Providence. Leski received a Lifetime Achievement Award from DesignxRI in 2017 and was inducted into their Hall of Fame.
In addition to designing buildings, furniture and academic programs, Leski is an illustrator, animator and writer. She has spoken about the creative process throughout the US and abroad and wrote the book The Storm of Creativity, which has been translated into Russian, Chinese, Korean and Turkish (and will soon be available in Arabic). She can be found most mornings before dawn rowing on the Seekonk River and Narragansett Bay in Providence.
Courses
Fall 2024 Courses
ARCH 2196-03 - THESIS SEM: NAVIGATING THE CREATIVE PROCESS
LevelUndergraduate
UnitArchitecture
Subject Architecture
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
ARCH 2196-03
THESIS SEM: NAVIGATING THE CREATIVE PROCESS
LevelUndergraduate
UnitArchitecture
Subject Architecture
PeriodFall 2024
Credits3
FormatSeminar
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: W | 1:10 PM - 4:10 PMInstructor(s): Kyna LeskiLocation(s): Bayard Ewing Building, Room 317Enrolled / Capacity: 8Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
We begin work on your Thesis Projects from the outset of the semester: navigating arbitrary beginnings; setting boundaries like nets; developing a whole language of grunts, smudges and haiku; gathering the unique and unrepeatable content, forces, and conditions of your project; hunting an emerging and fleeting idea; recognizing discoveries; projecting forward with the imagination; and distilling glyphs, diagrams and insight plans.This course satisfies the prerequisite requirement for Thesis Project.
Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00 - $200.00
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Architecture Students.
Major Requirement | BArch, MArch (3yr), MArch (2yr): Architecture
Studio: Spatial Dynamics is a studio-based inquiry into physical, spatial and temporal phenomena. The study of Spatial Dynamics is rooted in the necessity to consider forces and their effects on structure. Force is the consequence of energy. In Spatial Dynamics the energy and resultant forces are studied in actual motion, stability, and materiality. The structures of physical, spatial and temporal phenomena are studied through additive, subtractive, transformative, iterative, and ephemeral processes both analog and digital. Mediums and materials that are commonly explored and utilized have a broad range of characteristics due to their organic and synthetic sources. Most assignments utilize methods such as preliminary sketches and diagrams in research, planning, and experimental processes. Assignments reference the histories and theories of art and design and include areas of inquiry that extend to disciplines such as the sciences, music, dance, film, and theater.
Enrollment is limited to First-Year Undergraduate Students.
Major Requirement | BFA
Spring 2025 Courses
ARCH 2198-03 - THESIS PROJECT
LevelUndergraduate
UnitArchitecture
Subject Architecture
Period Spring 2025
Credits 6
FormatStudio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
ARCH 2198-03
THESIS PROJECT
LevelUndergraduate
UnitArchitecture
Subject Architecture
PeriodSpring 2025
Credits6
FormatStudio
ModeIn-Person
Start and End2025-02-13 to 2025-05-23
Times: T | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PMInstructor(s): Kyna LeskiLocation(s): Bayard Ewing Building, Room 404Enrolled / Capacity: 10Status: Open
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, students are responsible for the preparation and completion of an independent thesis project.
Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $200.00
Permission for this class is based on the student's overall academic record, as well as their performance in the Wintersession course ARCH 2197: Thesis Discursive Workshop. If the department recommends against a student undertaking ARCH-2198: Thesis Project, two advanced elective studios must be taken instead.
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Architecture Students.
Major Requirement | BArch, MArch (3yr), MArch (2yr): Architecture
