Pratt Institute

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Education

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art

Biography

Yael Erel graduated with honors from The Cooper Union School of Architecture where she received the Irma Giustino Weiss Prize for creative achievement. She is a registered architect and before co-founding New York based YEStudio, worked for the award-winning firm Diane Lewis Architect and ROART Inc. Erel has taught at Columbia University and The Cooper Union, and has been teaching at Pratt Institute since 2004. Her work has been exhibited at the Krakow Biennial and she has lectured at The Bronfman Center and The City College School of Architecture.

In 2008 Erel served as a peer reviewer for the panel Emerging Technologies: The Ethics of Digital Design for papers delivered at the ACSA 97th Annual Meeting in Portland Oregon. She has been serving on the Pratt institute Faculty SenateÂ’s Academic Programs and Policies Committee since 2007. Erel has been an invited reviewer on Juries in architecture schools world wide including Harvard, The Cooper Union, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, The City College of New York, Pratt Institute Interior Design department, NYIT, Tel Aviv University and Bezalel Architecture school in Jerusalem.

Professional Experience: Erel is a registered architect in Israel and New York. She is the principle and co-partner of the design and lighting practice РYEStudio РLightexture completing projects in New York and Israel. Select building projects by YEStudio include: Siman Tov Residence, Israel (2007), Tenement Loft, New York (2005), Tenement Atalier, New York (2003). Select Lighting projects by Lightexture include: SPF living room for artists at the Public Theater NYC, MESA COYOACAN Mexican restaurant, Brooklyn (2009), La Barra Cevicieria, New York (2008), 88 Orchard Caf̩ New York (2008), as well as SteamLight fixtures and installations (2007-2009).

Before opening her practice Erel has worked in the award winning architecture firm Diane Lewis Architect in New York (2002-2005) as project architect and designer. Select projects include: The New York Studio School for painting and drawing master plan; Higgs Carter King charter school, San Antonio, TX; Stux Gallery, New York; Atelier, New York and Urban research and design for Alexis Rockman Manifest Destiny Mural. Erel also worked as Project architect and designer at ROART inc in New York (2005-2007). Select projects include: Blue Note Jazz Club; Town house, NY; Hudson Street Roof-House. In 1999 Erel worked at the General Services Administration (GSA), Public Building Service, New York in the administration of the African Burial Ground Memorial and Interpretive Center competition. Additionally, as a Lieutenant Officer in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), Erel served as the Head of the Department for Education and Instruction in the Military Police Core (1993).

Exhibitions: In 2009 Erel and her Partner Avner Ben Natan exhibited in the Drawing Lightscapes show at Gallery MC, New York. The installation, a collaboration with Ceramic Artist Sharan Elran, was curated By Dina Krunic and included choreographed interaction sequences by ann and alexx make dances (segments of which were also shown at Queens Theatre in the Park.) Erel also exhibited her work at Pratt Institute “Crossing Disciplines – Light” exhibition and at the Krakow Biennale.

Publications: Her work was published in: Metropolis Magazine, artnow Magazine, Architect Magazine and In Process, Pratt Institute student work Publication. Erel was a contributor to work published in the following publications: DIANE LEWIS INSIDE-OUT ARCHITECURE NEW YORK, Surface Magazine, Brooklyn Museum publicaion Manifest Destiny, and The New York Times.

Awards and recognitions: In 2008 Erel was granted a Pratt Institute Faculty Development Fund grant In support of her Lightscape project – a development of a series of lighting fixtures which modified and tested the light qualities of CFL bulbs. In 2004 Erel received Second prize in the Tadius Cantor Museum competition (with Georg Windeck and Daniel Schuetz), exhibited in the Krakow Biennale of 2004. Upon Graduating from the Cooper Union Erel was the recipient of The Irma Giustino Weiss Prize, a $15,000 Award presented to a single graduating student demonstrating exceptional potential for creative achievement upon earning the Bachelor’s degree in Architecture or Art. In addition she received the Abraham Kazan Award for Urban Design Studies, the American Institute of Architects Henry Adams Medal Certificate of Merit, the Peter Bruder Memorial Fund Annual Prize for Structures and the Construction Management Association of America NYNJ Scholarship Award.

Lectures: In November 2007 Erel participated in the conference “Ineffable” at The City College of New York Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture where she presented her paper “Out of Time”. Among other select conference participants were Alberto Perez Gomez, Evan Douglis, Lebbeus Woods and Carl Chu. In November 2006 Erel delivered a joint lecture with the Buddhist scholar Roy Tzohar titled “The Structure of Creation – A Philosophical and Spatial Debate” in Alma New YorkÂ’s Lishma conference at The Bronfman Center. Earlier in 2006 Erel also ran an Alma study group titled “Divide Water from Water: Purity and Danger in the Ritual Bathhouse” at the JCC Manhattan with author and midrashic scholar Ruby Namdar.