Charles L. Owen papers, 1980-1993

Collection

Identifier: 008.01.14

Staff Only

Eight reports and associated public relations materials authored or edited by Charles L. Owen concerning four class projects he directed as a professor in Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design. The projects include Project Phoenix, Aquatecture, Aerotecture, and Nanoplastics. The reports included are listed as follows:

Reports

Project Phoenix: Macro-Design Proposals for Confronting Global Warming Fire Replaced, Charles L. Owen, 1990, July 2004
Project Phoenix: Macro-Design Proposals for Confronting Global Warming Fire Reversed, Charles L. Owen 1990, July 2004
Aquatecture. Macro-design Projects on the Theme “Water” Floating Fields, Charles L. Owen 1987, July 2004
Aquatecture. Macro-design Projects on the Theme “Water” CrossRoads in the Sea, Charles L. Owen 1987, July 2004
Aquatecture. Macro-design Projects on the Theme “Water” Patterned Energy, Charles L. Owen 1987, July 2004
Aquatecture: Macro-design Projects on the Theme “Water” Mobile Offshore Industry, Charles L. Owen 1987, July 2004
Aerotecture: The Return of the Rigid Airship, Charles L. Owen 1993, August 2004
NanoPlastics. A Home System, Brain Switzer, Jason Nims, Barry Shimelfarb, et al. with Charles L. Owen 1993, July 2004
Public Relations documents re Project Phoenix (4 pages), Aquatecture (4 pages), and NanoPlastics (2 pages)

Additional unprocessed content includes 31 boxes of personal and professional papers, itemized as follows: Reference papers for design (1 box) Publications/PhD Program (1 box) Design notes and journals (1 box) Academic/Administrative/Office files (7 boxes) Slides and slide making materials (10 boxes) Lecture notes/files (1 box) Academic Affairs & Administrative paperwork (1 box) Academic pamphlets and files (1 box) Design classes (2 boxes) Student projects (3 boxes) Semantic Mapping computer program and printouts (1 box) IIT Handbooks and Student Affairs (1 box) Systems and other lesson plans (1 box).

A digitized version of a 1980 lecture by Owen on Structured Planning also remains to be processed.

Dates

Creation: 1980-1993

Creator

Owen, Charles L. (Person)

Language of Materials

Records are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

The reports are available for research. The unprocessed 31 boxed of personal and professional papers and digital files of the Structured Planning lecture are not yet processed

Collection Size

8 reports

31 Boxes

229 megabytes : Digital files stored on network share and in Google Drive

Additional Description

Biographical Note

Charles L. Owen, Distinguished Professor of Design, joined the faculty of the Institute of Design in 1965, with prior service at Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute, 1962 - 1964. Owens served as Program Head for Product Design for more than 20 years. He served as associate director from 1969 to ca. 1972, and was instrumental in reviving the design program from near failure by a series of communication projects and competition wins from the late 1970's to the early 1980's. Owen assigned his students to design posters using the program, called Poster, which he then printed and circulated to strategic locations as a means of recruiting new students. The posters became recognized internationally for their innovation and design features.

Biographical / Historical

Project Phoenix comes up with two socially conscious plans intended to deal with the phenomena of global warming. The project uses the ideas of creating alternate forms of energy and strongly augmenting photosynthesis processes in order to hedge the disastrous effects of global warming on the environment. Aquatecture is a unique project that deals with the use of water. It poses the idea of using water resources for food production, transportation, energy development, and manufacturing. It is in these areas where the project is divided into subprojects named: Floating Fields, Crossroads in the Sea, Patterned Energy, and Mobile Offshore Industry. Nanoplastics, an innovational study on the technology surrounding the usage of plastics, was a project that had ambitious goals. It aimed to use molecular nanotechnology to develop materials that have properties such as: computational power, abilities to sense and react to surroundings, and capacities for changing function. Project Phoenix was given "Grand Award, Environmental Technology" for Popular Science's "100 Greatest Achievements in Science and Technology for 1991. Aquatecture won the Grand Prize in the 1987 Japan Design Foundation's international competition. See public relations documents (in folder 9 of the collection) for Nanoplastics recognitions.