Transitioning to Design-Build | Initial Successes and Challenges

This paper chronicles the transformation of a school of architecture’s model-making facilities into a laboratory for design-build education. The department of architecture has had for several years exceptionally large and well-maintained model-making facilities with the capacity to explore and learn about many materials and construction methods. Recognizing the trend for the last decade of design education curricula around the country and the world, the school has recently taken steps to build the capacity of the lab and allow it to better serve the changing pedagogies in architecture education, with a focus on full scale design build projects.Initial results from the first formalized design-build seminar at our university have focused on development plans and small design build projects. These projects are documented as case studies and range from projects that further the ethos of the architect as a maker, to service learning projects that attempt to effect social processes and social change.In addition to documenting the first formal design build seminar, the paper will address some of the foundations of design build education that have come out of our university, all of which contribute in a meaningful way to the theoretical discussion on design build pedagogy and its potential as a learning model.The design build seminar under review has yielded some interesting results that we are using to shape the future development of the seminar and the building lab itself. These results have become an integral part of any discussion about design build education. First and foremost we have been forced to re-address the goal of the seminar, has the goal been strictly educational all along, or does the unique nature of this seminar mean the goals are closely tied to the outputs, and is this fair to our students? Do the learning goals and outcomes of the course determine the success of the seminar, or does the constructed output? The paper will conclude with an illustration of how the seminar, coupled with the School of Architecture’s commitment to design build education, and the transformation of our building laboratory have the potential to foster a very active and productive design build unit across urbanism and architecture.

Volume Editors
Sergio Palleroni, Ted Cavanagh & Ursula Hartig

ISBN
978-0-935502-94-7