Rennie Tang
2017 CELA Excellence in Design Studio Teaching – Junior Level
Rennie Tang is a designer and educator based in Los Angeles. She is Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at California Polytechnic State University, Pomona. Her research interests include intergenerational public space, playscapes and kinesthetic engagement. Projects are often fueled by transdisciplinary collaborations with visual artists, choreographers and healthcare researchers.
Tang’s Department Chair and nominator wrote: “Rennie connects numerous creative methods and procedures in her studios. From dance to photography, plaster casting to glass blowing, Ms. Tang’s approach to studio teaching is inclusively expanding the scope of possibility and processes of design thinking for every student in her studios.”
A colleague had this to say: “While it is possible to see the inspiration of Ann Halprin or Twyla Tharp in her graceful choreography, Tang reveals a fresh beauty in the awkward untrained human movements across the found and built landscape. In the design studio setting, Tang uses choreography to expand student’s ability to read the landscape, to build their creative confidence, and to envision narrative sequences connecting path to place.”