Faculty + Staff

René C Davids

Professor of Architecture and Urban Design

Education
M.A. Environmental Design, Royal College of Art, London, U.K.
B.Arch., Universidad de Chile, Santiago
Philosophy Statement

“My other teachers were my students whom I taught to teach me.” Bernard Malamud, in Reflections of a Writer: Long Work, Short Life

Biography

Educated in Chile and the UK, René Davids, FAIA is a Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, a principal of Davids Killory Architecture, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects whose teaching, practice, research, and scholarship are informed by the belief that architecture is an aesthetic, cultural, social, and technological endeavor, at its best when all of its aspects are simultaneously engaged, each informing and enriching the others. The work of Davids Killory Architecture has been widely published and recognized with three AIA National Honor Awards for Architecture, two Presidential Design Awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, and three Progressive Architecture Awards, among many other local, regional, national, and international awards. The influences of technology, social issues, and topography on architectural design have also informed Professor Davids’s participation in recent international design competitions for which he has received recognition, including First Prize (with Taylor Medlin) for the 43rd International World Heritage Site competition (2008) sponsored by Central Glass and Shinkenchiku Corporation.

With Christine Killory, Professor Davids co-edits the AsBuilt series published by Princeton Architectural Press which explores interrelationships among architectural forms, materials, and technologies; three volumes have been published to date: AsBuilt 1: Details in Contemporary Architecture (2007),AsBuilt 2: Detail in Process (2008), and AsBuilt 3: Details Technology and Form (2012); the series is supported in part by a grant from the Graham Foundation. A research collaboration with Professor Pasi Aalto of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology to develop a design for a footbridge adaptable to diverse sites, contexts, functions, and cultural conditions, utilizing parametric modeling, was awarded a grant from UC Berkeley’s Peder Sather Center in 2014.Professor Davids has also edited and substantially contributed to Shaping Terrain: City Building in Latin America (University Press of Florida, Spring 2016), a book of essays exploring the impact of landscapes which have influenced built form since pre-Columbian times on post-colonial architecture and urbanism. Research for Shaping Terrain was supported in part by a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the Fulbright Specialist Program.

Professor Davids’s graduate and undergraduate studio courses and seminars feature intensively researched programs based on themes engaging the urban landscape and its infrastructure, architectural form, materials, and technology, often in international settings, most recently in Mexico City, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Lima, and Santiago de Chile, Design work produced in Professor Davids’s studios and seminars has been published in books and online, and students have received many design and research awards for course-related projects.

Galleries

To see galleries of student course work produced in Davids' design studios, visit:

For galleries of studio travel led by Davids, visit:

Courses Taught

ARCH 100A Fundamentals of Architectural Design

ARCH 100B Fundamentals of Architectural Design

ARCH 101 Case Studies in Architecture

ARCH 109X Special Topics: Architectural Design

ARCH 201 Case Studies in Architectural Design

ARCH 202 Final Project Studio

ARCH 202A Studio Thesis Option

ARCH 209A Seminar in Architectural Theory

ARCH 209C Final Project Preparation Seminar: Thesis

ARCH 209X Landscape/Architecture, Infrastructure/Urbanism (Seminar)

ARCH 219X Architecture and Identity: Latin America

ENV DES 201 Urban Design Studio