A non-traditional student, Michael Guttilla, re-started an architectural education begun at Blair Academy. His hiatus from the conventional path was spent drafting, cooking, cage fighting, and collecting credits at community college. Upon entering the University of Pittsburgh, Michael declared Architectural Studies as his major and competed for the Pitt Snowboard Freesytle Team. He will graduate this April.
Michael has become fascinated with the progression of architectural theory and strives to understand the contemporary make up of the discipline. His main interest is the process of design as opposed to the built form, architectural creation. While attending college, Michael has designed solar arrays for municipalities, businesses, residents and other government entities. After graduation, Michael plans on teaching English in China for classroom experience and rekindling his high school linguistics. Moreover, he will be entering architecture design competitions to bolster his portfolio before applying to graduate school in early 2017.
Come and hear Michael’s talk on the emerging architectural epoch, via the master plan of the Lower Hill District. It will show the evolution of urbanism in Pittsburgh from a proto city through the revitalization of last century into today’s site with Bjarke Ingles Group’s master plan. Also visit the Studio 2 table and see and discuss “the site of last repose”: a funerary site with public use, life component. For this project, Michael researched contemporary and historical philosophy of the soul and consciousness to create a unique take on life and death. His distillation of these esoteric topics manifests a set of design tools that dictated the architecture.