Suzanne Mathew

Associate Professor
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BA, Williams College
MARC, University of Virginia
MLA, University of Virginia

Suzanne Mathew is a registered landscape architect with a multidisciplinary background. The courses she teaches at RISD use a range of disciplinary methods—from artistic to theoretical to scientific—to help students develop a rigorous, analytical and intuitive approach to design.

Mathew’s work focuses on developing methods to measure and visualize the invisible and temporal aspects of landscape architecture. Her research techniques range from developing tools to document changes in environmental phenomena such as light, temperature and sound to experimenting with hand and digital methods for drawing spaces that change over time. She has published and presented her work on temporal and dynamic spaces both nationally and internationally, including articles in the recent publications Representing Landscapes: Hybrid (Amoroso) and Innovations in Landscape Architecture (Anderson and Ortega). With a background in science, architecture and landscape architecture, she focuses on the relationship between human infrastructures and environmental resilience. Recent work has included consulting for the Mayor's Institute on City Design, working with the National Parks Service to develop visitor experience strategies (as part of a team selected through the National Parks Now Competition) and presenting climate resilience strategies at the Newport Historical Society's Keeping History Above Water conference.

Mathew has earned a number of awards, including multiple ASLA Honor Awards, the Stanley and Helen Abbot Award for Excellence in Landscape Design, The Ken Roberts Memorial Award for Excellence in Hand Delineation and the AIA Washington DC UnBuilt Honor Award. In addition to teaching at RISD, she has worked as a designer and project manager at Landworks Studio in Boston, overseeing projects in locations ranging from Cambridge, MA to Nanjing, China.

Courses

Fall 2023 Courses

LDAR 22ST-01 - EMBODIED ENVIRONMENTS
Level Graduate
Unit Landscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Fall 2023
Credits 6
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

LDAR 22ST-01

EMBODIED ENVIRONMENTS

Level Graduate
Unit Landscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Fall 2023
Credits 6
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2023-09-06 to 2023-12-13
Times: MTH | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM Instructor(s): Suzanne Mathew Location(s): Weybosset St Studios, Room 200C Enrolled / Capacity: 12 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

When we are outside, our sense of space is defined by a number of hidden climatic factors that we can feel, but cannot touch. Elements such as light, temperature, wind, humidity, and sound, have spatial qualities that impact not only how space feels, but also how it is shaped. These factors are constantly changing and define atmospheric conditions as they interact with physical elements in the environment. And as our bodies move through space, we rapidly process these changes and they influence how we react, inhabit, and interpret the environment, but we rarely pay enough attention to our senses to understand what they are telling us. This class offers the opportunity for students to develop their own tools for sensing and visualizing atmospheric space in real-time, as it is experienced by our bodies. We will move back and forth between fieldwork, instrument design, and prototype development, and we will also engage a theoretical discussion about the role that tools play as an intermediary between human bodies and the environment. No prior experience in working with electronics is required; this course will include a practical introduction to working with sensors and microcontrollers. It would be helpful if students have experience using Rhino and the Adobe Suite.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Open to Architecture + Design Graduate Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

Spring 2024 Courses

LDAR 2205-01 - URBAN SYSTEMS STUDIO
Level Graduate
Unit Landscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Spring 2024
Credits 6
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

LDAR 2205-01

URBAN SYSTEMS STUDIO

Level Graduate
Unit Landscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Spring 2024
Credits 6
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-02-15 to 2024-05-24
Times: TTH | 1:10 PM - 5:40 PM; T | 9:40 AM - 11:40 AM Instructor(s): Suzanne Mathew Location(s): Weybosset St Studios, Room 200 Enrolled / Capacity: 15 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

This final core studio stresses large-scale and planning issues, complex sites, and urban conditions. The city is a living organism which evolves in a particular locale with a particular form due to a combination of environmental and cultural factors. These factors, the forces they represent and the material results of their interaction form, in their interrelated state, what can be called urban systems. The many forces at play within cities-social, cultural, economic, ideological, ecological, infra structural, morphological and visual-combine in various ways to created both an identifiable urban realm and the many sub zones within this. Yet, none of these factors is static and unchanging; and, as a result, urban systems, urban dynamics, and urban identity are likewise in a continuous state of flux. This studio will explore these systems and the complex issues at play in our urban areas and the potential for positive change. Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

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BA, Williams College
MARC, University of Virginia
MLA, University of Virginia