Adventures in the Architecture Studio

"God is in the Details" - Mies van der Rohe I have always found this quote about architecture interesting, and in many ways, I can identify with and relate to it.  Far too often, architecture is focused and obsessed with the grand gesture or only the exterior form of a design.  When having the chance to experience and observe really great architecture, I find it to be successful at all scales.  From a distance, the building intrigues with a unique profile or powerful forms revealing themselves in a landscape. From a closer viewpoint, the building reveals dynamic spaces, a sense of materiality, craft, texture, and pattern that  heighten the experience as well as change perception and awareness as one occupies and moves through it. Finally, as the building envelops us with its forms and surfaces, we are allowed the delight of discovering the small details.  These are the  moments where, if you are paying close attention, greatness happens.  Here, we see the

"Wait...he wants me to do what??!  Research?  I'm in architecture class.  I thought we just drew in here.  I just want to start designing my project."   No student of mine has ever said this out loud, but I'm sure it has been thought many times.  All throughout higher education and my professional career, I have understood and embraced the power and importance of research in architecture.  Now I have to pass this critical concept on to high school students to prepare them for a future in this profession.  In order to accomplish this, I typically set up projects with a variety of elements and situations that are intentionally unfamiliar to my students. This semester, my 2nd year class is designing shipping container houses for urban farms in central Detroit.  The third year class is selecting the site for the project, master planning the neighborhood, and designing community structures to support the projects of the 2nd year class. Like I said... intentionally un

“I used to help my grandfather on the farm, driving tractors, raising crops and animals…at about 9 or 10 I started driving tractors. It showed me at an early age what hard work was all about and how dedicated you have to be, no matter what you do.”  -Tyson Chandler,  Dallas Mavericks Center I grew up in the sticks...yes, it's true.  My formative years were spent in rural Texas among hay fields and along the banks of the Colorado river.  I learned how to drive on a Kubota tractor and was active in 4H.  Mornings and evenings were spent tending to cattle and other farm animals.  Family vacations were actually long weekends at county fairs around the state.  Somehow the boy on the farm ended up in architecture school embracing the dynamic environment of the metropolis and developing a passion for Modernism. When I'm planning a semester for my classes, I try and work around a central concept on which all of the studio projects are based.  This past Fall, we explored archite

One of the interests I developed quickly during my undergraduate studies at Texas A&M was a love of books.  There's something about architects and books.  There's even a book about architects and their books .  One of my favorite free time activities during those first years of school was to visit the central campus library and see what interesting architecture books I could find, check out, and peruse (while trying not to drool on the pages).  One evening, amid the library stacks, I came across Le Corbusier's " Oeuvre Complete "...and it was over.  I was instantly hooked. "Oeuvre Complete" is an 8 volume hardbound set of virtually every project and building completed by the French architect Le Corbusier.  Corbusier is considered one of the masters of International Style Modernism that occurred at the turn of the 20th century.  His work has become a staple of architecture schools worldwide.  Students study his work repeatedly in history class and d

Well, we are almost nine weeks into the Fall semester and are hard at work wrapping up project number one.  An objective that we had this year was to take the Architecture program further beyond the walls of our school and district.  This objective was inspired by the writing of Alan November in his book Who Owns the Learning which was a subject of study over the summer break.  You are already seeing the results in this blog post.  You will also begin to see changes in the program's website .  In addition to my own blog, each student in the program will have their own blog on our site that will allow them to write their thoughts and ideas on the projects and subjects we cover in class.  As we progress through different projects this year, students will begin using other online and social networking tools to extend the reach of their work into the digital landscape of the Internet.                   Please feel free to take a look at all of the information and ideas posted b