Stephanie Smith Stephanie Smith was born in Portland, Oregon. She received her BA from Bennington College and was trained as an architect at Harvard. In 2003, Smith started Ecoshack as an experimental design lab in Joshua Tree, California. Today it's also an LA-based design studio inspired by the ad hoc, indigenous and archetypal typologies typically found at the fringes of society and culture. Ecoshacks first shelter product, the Nomad Yurt, which has been featured in numerous blogs and publications (including Dwell, the NYTimes and the LATimes), was named the countrys best yurt by Dwell magazine in 2007, and was recently nominated for a Cooper-Hewitt Peoples Design Award. Wanna Start a Commune? is an Ecoshack project dedicated to bringing a communal lifestyle back to the forefront of American culture. Upcoming Ecoshack projects include an off-the-grid ecovillage currently under construction in Nicaragua, and a pair of tipis in Malibu. Recently completed projects include a set design for the reenactment of Allan Kaprows seminal 18/6 happening for MOCA as part of its Allan Kaprow: Art as Life show. Ecoshacks work has been exhibited in galleries and museums, including "The Cosmic House" at Exit Art in NYC, and "Lighten Up!" for Lisa Anne Auerbach's Tract House at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore. Smith has conducted seminars for graduate students at the Architectural Association (AA) and the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London, and the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam. She is a critic at design schools including Harvard University Graduate School of Design, SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Design), UCLA, and Art Center College of Design. And she is an occasional design instructor at SCI-Arc. Her most recent design studios explore ideas of fabrication, manufacturing and alternative forms of community. Course titles include Shelter as Product: Designs for a 150 s.f. Manufactured Dwelling, Instant City: A Manufactured Kit for a Temporary Community and Unplugged: An Off-the-grid Ecovillage for 20 Surfers. Smiths articles have appeared in a number of journals. Her recent texts include The GOOD Guide to Buckminster Fuller (Good Magazine, July/August 2007), and a short text on the topic "Why We Should Pursue Fabrication at Full Scale, for an upcoming Columbia University publication on the role of fabrication in architecture. Her other published essays include The Future of Retail (Wiley Press), and Ten Strategies for Urban Transformation (Diadalos). Artist bio compiled and written by Anna Mendoza, Curatorial Associate, Pitzer Art Galleries, Pitzer College