OU Architecture Associate Professor Daniel Butko and his collaborators, which include Gibbs College alumnus Zachary Maggia, AIA, as well as Coreslab Structures (Oklahoma City), and Riverbank Acoustical Laboratories, were recently announced as winners in ARCHITECT Magazine’s 15th annual R+D Awards program.
The award-winning project is entitled “Acoustically Diffuse & Absorbent Lightweight Aerated Concrete” (ADALAC). According to the jurors, “The [six] winners are ‘a good representation of the fertile ground that is the architectural space and of where the industry is heading,… Even during pandemic times, interesting design and product exploration are still going on, which is a [testament] to the industry.”’
“Concrete’s porosity, durability, and moldability make the material ideal for nonstructural use,” says Butko. His research on ADALAC explores the relationship between material and geometry to utilize concrete in a different way. Currently, concrete—planar, dense, and highly reflective of sound waves—is not the material of choice for acoustical mitigation. However, along with its inherent structural and thermal properties, concrete can be quite porous, not to mention amenable to experimentation with form. To test its noise-control capabilities, Butko and his team of researchers are developing sawtooth panels made of acoustically diffuse and absorbent lightweight aerated concrete.
For more information on Butko’s project on ADALAC or to check out the other five award winners, visit ARCHITECT’s R+D Awards article.
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture congratulates Thinh "Henry" Duong, a master's student in the Division of Interior Design, for earning first place in the 2026 Robert Bruce Thompson Annual Student Light Fixture Design Competition.
Gibbs College of Architecture Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) Director and Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Design (PLAD) faculty member Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., recently published a new book, Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum.
In May, students from the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture's Architecture, Environmental Design, and Interior Design programs participated in an intensive five-day Studio in Residence at Taliesin West, the iconic winter home and desert laboratory of Frank Lloyd Wright.
