Rob Ley
Adjunct Professor
University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, 1993-1996, B.Arch University of California, Los Angeles, 1997-2000, M.Arch
Rob Ley is the founder of Rob Ley Studio. His studio’s history of experimental work includes installations at the Storefront for Art and Architecture (New York), the Taubman Museum of Art, the Materials & Applications Gallery (Los Angeles), as well as commissions for many public and private organizations including the Martin Luther King Hospital (Los Angeles), the Eskenazi Hospital (Indianapolis), the O’Hare Airport (Chicago), the Oregon Zoo (Portland), and the Seattle Fire Department.
Ley has been awarded several notable awards and grants including the 2015 American's for the Arts - Public Art Network Year in Review award, a Graham Foundation grant, multiple AIA research grants, and an IDEC Special Projects grant. In 2010, Ley was presented with the Best Storefront Design award by the Municipal Art Society of New York for Reef at the Storefront for Art and Architecture.
Rob Ley currently teaches graduate and undergraduate design studios and seminars at the University of Southern California (USC). Ley has lectured and exhibited internationally on the topics of public art, design, technology and innovation for the public sphere at institutions including the Cooper Union (New York), the American Institute Vienna (Vienna, Austria), Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design (Los Angeles), Virginia Tech School of Architecture (Blacksburg, VA), and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (Milwaukee, WI). Rob holds a Master of Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Related Links: rob-ley.com
- 509Digital Fabrication – Materials and Methods of ProductionDigital Fabrication – Materials and Methods of Production
This course is a broad overview of multiple fabrication and construction techniques used in the production of architecture, furniture, and industrial design.
This course will be a combination of lecture and lab. Lectures will cover three primary categories of industrial process (Additive, Subtractive, and Transformative) along with materials research (Plastics, Composites, Wood, and Metals). We will engage a series of discovery‐ based, hands‐ on workshops where students will begin small scale material and fabrication prototypes, utilizing various digital fabrication technologies (CNC milling, 3D printing, Laser Cutting, etc). In the second half of the course, students will further develop their initial material-based discoveries into refined, small‐ scale projects that exhibit a high degree of material awareness and craft.
- 609Advanced Digital FabricationAdvanced Digital Fabrication
This course provides an introduction to a range of new fabrication techniques and technologies that will encourage students to rethink the nature of architectural fabrication and representation. The subject matter in this course anticipates that students already have a working knowledge of the major material groups within architectural design and construction (Wood, Metals, Concrete, Masonry, Glass, Plastics, and Composites). Over the course of the semester, we will look closely at how these materials are being utilized and advanced in fields outside of architecture and will also learn the methods and processes that are used in their fabrication.