Navigation
| Position | Professor Department Head |
|---|---|
| Phone | 805.756.1316 |
| Fax | 805.756.1500 |
| hdehahn@calpoly.edu | |
| Office | 05-218 |
| Office Hours | 8-5pm (please contact Department) |
| Web Page | |
| Fall Courses | ARCH 451 Architectural Design 4.1 |
| Winter Courses | ARCH 452 Architectural Design 4.2 |
| Spring Courses | ARCH 453 Architectural Design 4.3 |
Areas of Expertise
Urban Preservation
Cultural Landscapes
Swiss Architecture
Profile
Henri T. de Hahn was trained at the Swiss Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPF-Lausanne) where he received his Master of Architecture degree in 1985. He attended the Institute for Architecture and Urban studies (IAUS) in 1983 and The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union in 1985, both in New York City. Since graduation his architectural career has been divided between teaching and the practice of architecture, both in Europe and in the US. He conducted his internship with Atelier Cube 1982/83 (and continued to work intermittently as principal designer on several project for the same firm), and worked as an architect with Musy et Vallotton Architects (1989/93-95), Dunning and Versteegh (1995), and Atelier Audergon Vionnet et Perakis (1995-2001) all in Switzerland. Parallel to collaborative works with Swiss firms and internships in New York, in 1989 de Hahn formed the architectural design firm Atelier de Hahn under which a variety of independent built and unbuilt projects, furniture designs, competitions and theoretical proposals have been developed.
Between 1987 and 2006 he served on the faculty at the College of Design University of Kentucky teaching a variety of design studios, seminars, and lecture courses in the departments of Architecture, Interior Design, and Historic Preservation. In addition, from 1993-96 de Hahn taught at the ETH-Zürich and the Art Center College of Design in Vevey, both in Switzerland. In 2006 he joined the College of Architecture & Environmental Design at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo as Architecture Department Head and Professor of Architecture.
De Hahn’s scholarly activities have brought his interest towards a reevaluation of modernist theories by working on projects that emphasize contemporary architecture within a cultural urban context. A variety of interests ranging from building types to the transference of vernacular structures to high architecture as well as the tectonic of materials and their construction have, in the last decade led de Hahn towards a renewed interest in a realistic/visionary theoretical underpinning of his work. This has brought him to explore projects of at a larger scale through which he wishes to develop an urban architecture understood as Land Art. Recent research has brought de Hahn to investigate the mapping of the city as an analogous principle of settlement.
Education
The Cooper Union, New York, 1986
M.Arch, EPF-Lausanne, Switzerland, 1985
The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, New York, 1983
B.S, College Saint Michel, Fribourg Switzerland, 1979
Teaching Experience
Professor, Architecture Department, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, 2006
Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Kentucky, Lexington 1987-2006
Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, ETH-Zürich, 1993-96
Visiting Lecturer, Art Center College of Design, Vevey 1993-96
Registration
State of Vaud, Switzerland, 1985
Memberships
NAAB Accreditation Team (ACSA Appointee) Member 2005-09
Vernacular Architectural Forum (VAF) 2000-present
The Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA) 1985-present
SIA State of Vaud (1985-present)
National Trust for Historic Preservation, Member 1996-present
Scholarship
This project is a landscape for the restoration and renovation of the historic 1824 African Cemetery No.2 in Lexington, Kentucky. Conceived as two parts (Cemetery/Research Center) the project explores a theme central to architecture: building in the landscape and the landscape as building.
This project emerges from the cemetery’s neglect, the memory of slavery, 19th century railroad engineering, and renewed prejudices and vandalism against the burial ground.
In the cemetery’s eight acres 5000 horizontal commemorative stones will mark the known and the unknown graves of Buffalo soldiers, community leaders and citizens. An open-air Entrance Pavilion is a microcosm of the cemetery as well as a metaphor of the possible activities: chapel, museum, retreat, and learning.
The Research Center located west on the reclaimed cemetery land is a modified city block; a insert imagememory of the Land Ordinance Act. The new grounds and the roof of the research center become a series of Belvederes. Thematic gardens explore historical themes of African American agrarian activities and compliment the adjacent landscape of the existing cemetery.
Contemporary public architecture must by a dynamic force in today’s field of preservation and urban communities, and offer to the less privilege of the inner cities of America a place for the expression of a model of life and civic activities. African Cemetery seeks to revitalize public activities located on the North side of Lexington.
News
De Hahn is serving as a member on the California Architecture Foundation Board of Regents
De Hahn is serving as a member of Cal Poly's Branding Stategy Task Force
Links
The Architectural League of New York: http://www.archleague.org/
National Trust for Historic Preservation: http://www.nationaltrust.org/
Netherlands Architecture Institute: http://www.nai.nl/
San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden: http://www.slobg.org/
Swissnex: http://www.swissnex.org/
World Monuments Fund: http://www.wmf.org/