Adventures in the Architecture Studio

"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 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...