A (NEW) NOTE FOR MY FALL STUDIO

The Norwegian (and global) architecture firm Snohetta uses this image of the “Communal Kitchen Table” as a way to illustrate the creative and collaborative nature of their firm’s culture.  I see this image as a metaphor of a design studio as well. A studio as a “Communal Kitchen”.

Hello Second Year Pre-Architecture students. 

As we begin the Fall 2022 semester, I am reenergized by the thought of the design studio as a creative, collaborative community of designers. 

While the second year studio may challenge you at times, it is first and foremost an opportunity for you to develop a strong design process and flex your creativity.  You belong here and are well equipped to succeed.

We create, design, draw, make, think, conceptualize, refine, develop and present creative work in the second year studio class, and I hope that you are as energized by that possibility as I am. 

Second year is the transfer prep year. By the end of this year my job is to have you prepared for Junior studio at the university level. 

I will do my best to support YOU in this pursuit. And I will try to create a studio culture that becomes a ‘communal kitchen’ of ideas, creative work, and shared successes. 

Welcome to Arch 2201 and 2250.

Design Development

What does that mean?

Inspirations Collage Study Models by Kendra Shouse

New ideas inspired by the work (What is next?)

Respond to the critique (Not just your critique!)

Stack requirements (What hasn’t been studied?)

§  Image Integration

§  Materiality

§  Found Object

§  Text

Add complexity and layers (for this assignment but not always)

Does NOT always = entirely new models

LOOKING FORWARD

Each year I meet with my second year studio for one last wrap-up class at the end of the Spring Semester.  This cohort of students is completing their final design studio at COD, and many are moving on to continue their architectural education at various University programs in the Fall.

So each year I give a kind of "final lecture" that includes parting thoughts and advice for the future.  

This year, for the first time, I wrote it down.

LOOKING FORWARD (To Next Year and Beyond)

or, the 15 things I tried to teach you this year…....

Q. What did you learn that you can take with you to your next studio?

01.  (remember to) Enjoy the process (you have learned a strong design process)  You have developed a solid foundation of process, design thinking, and work ethic that will position you well for future success.

02.  Think conceptually / think poetically / think spatially / think formally / respond to the site / address social context / and create memorable architectural experiences.

03.  Learn from precedents (look at precedents)

04.  Build physical study models (it’s the best way to test ideas and learn to see 3-dimensionally)

05.  Sketch, a lot.

06.  Develop your design work. Don’t get stuck on the first idea. Test ideas / explore creative alternatives / question your initial assumptions / don’t pre-determine. 

07.  Value the critique (Have work for your professor to critique each studio class)

08.  Design in section / consider detail and scale

09.  Remember the importance of Process – This may not be forced in the future.  Architecture school becomes more self-driven as you move upward / with higher expectations and consequences.

10.  Learn from and be open to critiques.  Learn from your mentors.   Listen / Embrace uncomfortable challenges.  (be a sponge)

11.  Be self-critical!  You may not receive as much feedback as you want in the future / Your process should become more independent.  Have confidence in your work, BUT…  have a critical eye too.  Learn to develop your work without feedback.

12.   Be self-motivated! / You might have limited GRADE opportunities in the future.  Manage your time (my 2 week rule = accomplish something weekly / accomplish something substantial every two weeks)  Do this for the entire semester.

13.   Be your own advocate (in life too).  You are responsible for your own education.

14.  Present quality / developed work.  You have limited opportunities to really create a great portfolio.  (You will apply to grad school in just three semesters)

15.  Document everything.  Document your work and your design process.  Archive everything.  (Build your portfolio and “network” of advocates for grad school and beyond)

Thank you! For all of your hard work and a successful year.  Keep in touch and best of luck!

Send me updates / Accomplishments / and  future graduation photos!

A Thought for Midterm

Sometimes, “you can’t see the forest through the trees.” 

We have a tendency, during the design process, to increasingly become more and more focused on the specifics of our design projects. We dig deep into the decisions about all sorts of detailed, yet important, design problems. It is easy to lose sight of the big picture. 

So at this point, force yourself to…. 

ZOOM OUT 

And ask…. 

What is the big idea? (what am I really trying to do with this project?) 

How does my project engage the landscape? 

How does the architecture reveal aspects of the natural world? 

How does the building help to teach about ecology? 

How does the building raise awareness? 

Did I lose sight my initial concept? 

Are there new ideas that this study reveals? 

 (Let the work speak back to you) 

What other possibilities exist? 

What interesting questions does my project raise? 

What is my project telling me now? (and does it give me direction for moving forward?) 

Are there other ways (alternatives) to accomplish this idea? 

Don’t start over – but be open to shifting directions. 

And… keep the main idea the main idea.

MAPPING AS A WAY TO SEE

This essay was originally published in the OER textbook The Western World, Daily Readings on Geography by Joel Quam and Scott Cambell, published by the College of DuPage Digital Press.  Thank you to Professor Quam for inviting me to contribute this essay to this publication.  I am sharing it here for my students.

MAPPING AS A WAY TO SEE

In 1974 the French author Georges Perec sat in the place Saint-Sulpice in Paris for three days and recorded everything he saw.  His quirky essay “An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris” reads like a laundry list of mundane observations.  But as one progresses through the text a kind of rhythm is slowly revealed.  Through his observations of the mundane, Perec brings to life the spirit of a place, its rhythms, pulsations, and attributes that makes real places and spaces memorable.  Perec himself said that his attempt was to describe “that which is generally not taken note of, that which is not noticed.”¹  By observing the often overlooked aspects of everyday life, a deeper understanding of a place emerges.

What Perec was doing was making a kind of map.  Not necessarily a literal map like we might think of, but rather a deep observation and record of a place.  Architects are interested in the ways in which they can come to truly understand places and spaces in the built environment. Mapping, the act of recording and observing, is one method we can employ to understand and see places more clearly.

Architecture students are encouraged to use mapping as an analysis tool before beginning any design work.  The idea is to look deeply at a place, observe, record, and analyze. This is an essential first step in the design process that occurs before any concept sketch or design gesture has been considered.  The idea is that a deeper understanding of place and space will lead to more authentic and sensitive design responses to a given place.

Students in the Architecture 2201 Design I class use mapping exercises as a part of site analysis research before design begins.  Photos by Mark A. Pearson.

Taking Chicago as a model, mapping can reveal and help us see and understand a place.  It can also raise important questions for a designer to consider.

Architects often use types of maps known as figure grounds.  Figure ground maps are graphically beautiful.  Simplifying an urban environment into buildings (figure) and space (ground) can reveal patterns of development, scale and density. Overlay this same type of map with highlights of public parks and open space can reveal another type of pattern. These mapping activities also raise questions.  Where are the public spaces in a city?  Who has access to them?

Image 1,2: Figure ground maps created using open source data from the Chicago Data Portal.  Image 3: Running data from flowingdata.com.

Traffic maps can reveal the movement and flow of people and products (and also tell you where not to drive), but have you ever looked at illustrative maps of fitness tracker activities?  These beautiful maps reveal an entirely different pattern of use, leisure, and fitness within an urban environment.  For an example, go to   https://flowingdata.com/2014/02/05/where-people-run/#jp-carousel-33724 ²  By slightly shifting the way we look at a city, we can begin to see anew. The maps equally force us to ask questions about who has access and proximity to public parks, trails, and open space.

Mapping can also help us understand deeper social justice issues and reveal uncomfortable histories. In June 2020, WBEZ Chicago public radio published an essay on where banks have invested money through lending (mortgages) in the city, and where they have not.³  The centerpiece of this article is a striking data visualization map which overlays the inequities of lending practices over neighborhood racial data.  With striking clarity, it reveals the disparities that exist.  Shockingly, these are not redlining maps from the 1930s and 1940s, rather, these maps reveal contemporary data collected from 2012 to 2018 which illustrate the lack of investment in poor and minority neighborhoods. Mapping, in this sense, is an activity that reveals.  It forces us to encounter difficult truths about structural inequities within the urban environment.

             Link to WBEZ Article

The City of Chicago has an open source data portal tool that you can use to view and create your own mapping analysis projects.⁴  In the Chicago Data Portal you can find maps illustrating datasets on everything you can imagine from crime to fire station locations, bike racks, abandoned vehicles, green roofs, grocery stores, urban farms, libraries, parks, red-light cameras, pothole repairs, and so on.  You can use the data set tools to create your own mapping combinations and analysis.  For example,  draw a map that compares farmers' market locations to affordable rental housing, thus linking two things that are fundamental to human life, the needs for shelter and food.  Unsurprisingly, there is a visible disconnect between affordable housing locations and access to fresh produce in the City of Chicago, such that areas with lower cost housing often are food deserts that lack fresh fruits and vegetables.  Mapping in this way can help us understand the concept of food deserts by revealing spatial inequities.  Mapping can help us ask the right questions.  Who has access to fresh produce?  Who does not? Why?

So what does this have to do with Architecture and Design?  Well here are a few examples.

In 2012 Chicago Architect Katherine Darnstadt, in partnership with Architecture for Humanity Chicago, transformed a decommissioned CTA bus into a mobile produce market.⁵ Called “Fresh Moves,” this project transformed a city bus into a mobile farmers' market on wheels.  It was designed to both raise awareness to the issues of food deserts within the City of Chicago, as well as to provide access to fresh produce for communities that lack that access to fresh nutritious food.

Ben Kolak, Courtesy Borderless Studio. This map of Chicago is painted in the parking lot of the former Anthony Overton Elementary School, highlighting 45 CPS school closures by neighborhood.

Chicago based designer and educator Paola Aguirre Serrano, founder of the firm Borderless Studio provides another example.  In her project titled “creative grounds”, Aguirre Serrano addresses the issue of repurposing closed Chicago Public Schools.⁶ Part design project, part installation art, this project features a larger than life map of Chicago that was painted in the parking lot of the former Anthony Overton Elementary School, highlighting the neighborhood locations of over 45 CPS schools that have closed since 2013 due to budget cuts. This larger scale interactive map (you can walk on it) is a tool used to reveal. It is also used by the design team as a tool to spark dialogue about the topic of school closures and to solicit inclusive responses regarding the future repurposing of these structures.⁷  In this project, a map becomes the catalyst and a key element of a project that attempts to instigate inclusivity and collaboration around the difficult and politically charged topic of school closures.  This map, and the resulting dialogue sessions, had the added benefit of creating a network of community partners.  Anthony Overton school is located in the heart of the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago.  In 2020 when the combination of pandemic and protest shut down many community grocery stores, this community partner network was leveraged to set up a rapid response food distribution center in the former school to assist neighbors who had no access to food in close proximity.  Architecture firms like Borderless studio believe that design professionals should be discussing issues of design justice and asking questions like “Who benefits from design? Who gets the burden?”⁸

Maps are not just static illustrations.  They are reflections of those who create them, and at best can be used as active tools to see and understand.  The act of mapping can reveal, raise questions, illustrate, provide analysis, and ultimately help us to see, like George Perec, that which might otherwise remain unseen.  For designers (and future design professionals), this ability to see and understand the spirit of a place is an essential component to the creation of meaningful, authentic design solutions, especially those solutions that attempt to make the built environment we all share a better place for everyone.

Did you know? 

The city of Chicago is organized like a giant piece of graph paper, with the zero-zero point located at the intersection of State and Madison Streets.  State and Madison streets are also the dividing line between North and South and East and West Street addresses. This giant Cartesian grid helps make the city logical and navigable.  A typical Chicago city block is 660 feet.  Every 800 street addresses (8 city blocks) equals a mile. Going North, Chicago Avenue (800 N) is one mile north, North Avenue (1600N) is two miles north, and Fullerton Ave (2400N) is three miles north of the city center. The same pattern works going west, with Halsted, Ashland, and Western Avenue each located at one mile intervals. There are some anomalies to this grid system, but for the most part Chicago, like the entire Midwest, is organized on a mathematical grid system based on one mile squares.

Cited and additional bibliography:

¹Georges Perec, and Marc Lowenthal. 2010. An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris. Cambridge, Mass. ; New York: Wakefield Press.

²Yau, Nathan. 2018. “Where People Run in Major Cities.” FlowingData. October 19, 2018. https://flowingdata.com/2014/02/05/where-people-run/.

³Loury, Linda Lutton, Andrew Fan, Alden. 2020. “Home Loans in Chicago: One Dollar To White Neighborhoods, 12 Cents To Black.” Interactive.Wbez.Org. June 3, 2020. https://interactive.wbez.org/2020/banking/disparity/.

⁴“City of Chicago | Data Portal | City of Chicago | Data Portal.” n.d. Chicago. https://data.cityofchicago.org/.

⁵Darnstadt, Katherine. n.d. “Fresh Moves.” Latent Design. http://www.latentdesign.net/. Accessed June 5, 2020. http://www.latentdesign.net/fresh-moves.

⁶Serrano, Paola Aguirre. n.d. “Anthony Overton.” Borderless Studio. https://www.borderless-studio.com/. Accessed June 5, 2020. https://www.borderless-studio.com/overton.

⁷“HOME.” 2017. Creative-Grounds. 2017. https://www.creativegrounds.org/.

⁸Keane, Katherine. 2019. “Borderless Studio Next Progressives.” Www.Architectmagazine.Com. Architect Magazine. November 4, 2019. https://www.architectmagazine.com/practice/borderless-studio_o.

A NOTE TO MY FALL CLASSES

The Norwegian (and global) architecture firm Snohetta uses this image of the “Communal Kitchen Table” as a way to illustrate the creative and collaborative nature of their firm’s culture.  I see this image as a metaphor of a design studio as well. A studio as a “Communal Kitchen”, and I wonder what my Fall studio classes will look like when we can’t ‘eat’ together (create together).

My summer classes were kind of frustrating.

I taught the same two classes I always teach each summer, but this year they were delivered fully online.  Let me tell you about how that went.

 

One class in particular, some students struggled to simply complete the work.  This would not have happened in the traditional face to face class.  In the FTF class, students would normally get the work done in class without many issues. 

 

The thing is, that in-person lab class would normally meet (in a computer lab) for 5 hours, twice a week.

 

So what was different this summer?  One difference, I cut the number of assignments by 30% this to try to address the transition to online learning.  That should have helped the class.

 

The other difference, of course, is that students needed to do this work independently.  And in some cases, that didn’t work out very well.  I’ll resist the temptation to pontificate about distracted learners and short attention spans.  But I wonder why it seems harder for students to manage their time working from home?

 

In my desire to try to deliver the best online content possible – I worked feverishly to develop many instructional videos. 

 

And then the students didn’t watch them.  Some did.  But some didn’t.  It became clear in the work that was submitted (and the number of views each video received).  Colleagues have shared the same frustration with me.

 

Do the students understand that this behavior is the equivalent to skipping class?  No wonder they are confused about the homework.

 

So is it the students capacity to work independently that is the problem?  I mean, I am distracted working from home too, and I can’t even imagine some of the challenges that my students are undoubtedly facing.

 

Or

 

Is it my ability to create engaging content?  (sometimes the content is what it is, but I do have much to learn about online pedagogy)

 

How do I do this better in the Fall?  (which starts in a matter of weeks)

 

Another challenge this summer was student communication, or lack thereof.  What happens when students don’t check their email?  Of if they don’t respond? Or if they don’t respond in a timely manner?  Or if they don’t communicate other extenuating issues to me that I need to know?  Or if they just disappear?

 

How do I improve communication in an online environment?  One student informed me that “their generation doesn’t use email.”  Well, ok – but the professional world still does. (and besides it's the only tool I am given)

 

One of the clear challenges to distance learning is the “distance” part.  Losing contact with that metaphorical “communal kitchen” that is the design studio.  If a student has a question in a classroom, I walk to their desk, and the issue is resolved in a matter of minutes.  Online it is different.  There are more layers, and distance, between me and the students.  And very few students reached out to me for help this summer. 

 

I need students to go more out of their way to seek help when they need it.

 

If a student were writing this, I wonder what they would say?  I am sure they would share their own frustrations.  (probably some of them with my performance)  I know many were frustrated by technology, computers, software, etc. 

 

What other issues do the students have with this format?  How can I help them overcome these obstacles?

 

Please don’t mistake this missive as a lack of empathy on my part.  I know these are challenging and wildly unusual times.  I know some of my students have real struggles and significant challenges.   

 

So as we begin the Fall semester, these are some of the “distance learning” challenges I would like to address. 

 

I want you, my future students, to help me do this better. 

 

But I also want you, future students, to do this better yourselves. 

For you.  For your future.  For your education.

 

While we are living in unusual times, it is also a time of incredible creative opportunities.  For my studio, learning to be creative, productive, and professional in a mostly online environment will absolutely benefit your future career.  This pandemic will change the way we work.  Being able to thrive in this environment is now a key ingredient for future success.

And architects embrace ambiguity.  We are creative problem solvers.  We are trained to thrive in environments with high uncertainty. 

 

Sound familiar?  (What will happen this Fall is anyone’s best guess)

 

However, you, student, future architect – are well equipped to succeed in this environment.  If you choose to be.  If you are “present” and you engage with the content, do the work, communicate, and ask for help.

 

And I will do my best to support YOU.  I will try, in this mostly online studio, to create a culture that seeks to become a ‘communal kitchen’ of ideas, creative work, and shared (at a distance) successes.

 

 

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND....

So, are there any benefits to this online, remote teaching experiment?  Mostly, I miss the face-to-face contact with my students. I miss sketching on trace paper, and having conversations about study models while holding a real object in my hand.

But maybe there are some positives to learn from all of this as well.  So I am starting a simple pro’s and con’s list to remote studio instruction, to try to understand all of this.

PRO’s

No Commute! 

I am not missing my hour and a half of driving each day.   That is certainly one advantage of working from home. (Although I do miss seeing people)  Several of my students have also echoed this same sentiment.  One student mentioned that she could take more classes this summer because online course are more convenient for her and she doesn’t need to spend so much time diving to and from campus.

Accountability (Digital Desk Crits)

I have been doing a lot of one on one desk critique meetings remotely.  These individual student appointments have been quite productive.  In some ways these individual meetings have been more productive than in the studio.  There seems to be a level of accountability involved in this.  I think it is related to the formality of assigning meeting times.  The students have nearly always had work uploaded in their directory to discuss for these meetings. 

I assign a meeting time and students show up, prepared.  I am still amazed by this!

In a traditional studio desk crit, that doesn’t always happen.  I still have some students avoiding me by not scheduling meetings, but for the most part these have been very effective.  This week, for example, I saw a number of final presentation graphics to critique.  I rarely have students ready to do that in the face-to-face studio until the final deadline.  I may try to incorporate some of this process into the FTF studios in small ways in the future.

Digital Desk Crit Markups

Digital Desk Crit Markups

Digital Desk Crit Markups

Digital Desk Crit Markups

One downside, though, is that everything is scheduled.  There are no serendipitous conversations, or quick studio questions.  Everything is a planned discussion with an online meeting time.  This has lead to students being prepared, but I also miss the unplanned design conversations that occur organically in the studio.  There is no way to replicate that.

.pdf assignment collection

The students have been submitting assignments to me as .pdf packets of work.  I like having this digital record of the student work, and it gives me markup options for grading and giving feedback that are kind of nice.  I enjoy having a digital record of the drawing markups that I create with students.  I know exactly what I talked about with each student, each studio day, as a result of this process.  And students get a digital packet back in return with redlines to reference as they develop their work.  This process is slower than in the FTF studio, but there are advantages to it.

.pdf presentations

My remote studio has been forced away from the presentation board, to a curated slideshow for graphic presentations of their work.  I suspect that this presentation format will also help their final review presentations.  I suspect it will force the students to more carefully consider their verbal presentations, as they will need to curate (and really think about) the content and order of their slides.

I will know more about how effective this is been after next week.

Are we missing some graphic composition learning objectives, yes!  But the overall graphic and verbal communication seems to be an improvement in this format.

No more throwing images on a board at the last minute without thinking about the story those images tell.  (At least that is the hope!)

CON’s

I think there are a lot of deficiencies to teaching studio remotely, actually.  I am luck that we were halfway through the term before this experiment began. I do not think remote studios are an adequate substitution for FTF design instruction, especially at the second year level. 

Here are a few of the pedagogical challenges I have seen in the virtual design studio.

Creative Motivation

One of the beautiful aspects of a design studio is the creative energy.  You have a bunch of creative people, working in close proximity to one another, all influencing each other creatively.  A lot of learning happens in the studio when the instructor is not present.  There is a kind of cross pollination of creative thinking and energy that occurs in a good design studio.

This is not always happening for students from home. A number of my current students have talked about how difficult it is to find motivation to produce creative work while in isolation.  This is perhaps a design opportunity for my assignments to address in the future, but it seems nearly impossible to replicate the shared learning of a busy studio online.

Skills Gap

There always is a range of skills in my second year studio.  Some students excel at some things, while other students struggle.  This is expected in any classroom environment. 

But the move to remote learning seems to have amplified this in some cases.  I have noticed that the performance gap between the top students and those who struggle is being amplified.  Some students are really struggling to manage working from home, while others have adjusted fairly seamlessly to all of this.  External factors seem to be playing a large role in all of this.  Perhaps that was always the case, but this era of COVID self-isolation seems to be revealing and exaggerating a number of structural cracks.  I have seen this though the wide range of work in my studio.  The weaker projects are noticeably worse in this format, and I am exhausting a tremendous amount of energy to keep some students moving forward.

3d Visualization + Design Development

Design development is always a challenge to teach in the second year studio.  Students often get stuck at one level of design development, and miss opportunities to really improve their design work.  One major challenge for younger architecture students is learning to develop their work 3-dimensionally.  3D visualization skills are always a major part (and challenge) of studio teaching at the second year level.  Because of this, we usually make a lot of physical study models in my studio classes.  I have come to believe that the making of physical, 3-dimensional, study models is the best way to teach students to “see” and understand their work. 

Form, composition, scale, and spatial qualities of design seem to be best revealed to students through making objects with their hands.

This semester, when we moved to remote instruction, the studio seemed to get stuck in 2d world.  Students keep showing me floor plans, even when I ask them to work in models. They keep drawing plans over and over, without always understanding the 3d implications of their drawings.  Study models (and the 3d design development that goes with it) have been sluggish.  Part of this is loosing access to the studio, with space to work and ample supplies.  Some of the student shave had trouble getting model-making supplies.

Part of the problem may be that I have not transitioned expectations effectively.  I need to learn how to teach in this format as well, and write assignments that give me the results I am looking for.

We have also lost access to our beloved site model.  We spent several weeks of the semester making this tool, only to suddenly be forced to leave it behind.  The study models I am seeing are less effective without context.  It is hard to have conversations about the building’s relationship to its site in this format.

The site model, usually a key tool, sits in an empty studio.

So the “getting stuck in 2d” problem is part workspace, part material availability, part motivation, and part instructional design.

But I think the real issue is 3d visualization skills. Some students really struggle with visualization, and online learning seems to amplify these deficiencies.  Students have reverted back to what they are most comfortable with – drawing in plan.  It is the easiest drawing.  And you don’t have to build that time consuming model.

The problem is - I still don’t know what some of their design projects look like.  One week before final reviews!  I’m a little concerned about this. 

A “first study” in a final review is never a good thing.

NORMALCY (and a bit of fun)

There is nothing really normal about any of this. 

However, I have tried to keep some sense of routine and tradition for my design studio class as we have moved to remote learning.

So for the studio class, that means Dad Jokes!

Ok, here is the story.

(This is kind of the last thing you would expect from an introvert like me)

We started doing Dad jokes at the beginning of each second year studio class some time last year.  This all started after Christmas in 2019, when my children gave me a Dad joke calendar.  I brought the calendar into work (what else would I do with it?) and started telling the Dad joke of the day at the beginning of each studio class.  It was kind of a nice icebreaker, especially for the sleepy morning studio.

Fast forward to remote learning.

One of the first decisions I made when we went remote was to send out video Dad jokes each class.  Some traditions must remain intact in sprite all of this craziness.

I even did a special spring break edition.

And now back to my introverted cave – this is way too much attention for me….  (The things we learn about ourselves in a crisis)

I do hope my students have appreciated this attempt to try to keep some things “normal”.

This tradition will continue until the semester ends.

WORK FROM HOME

For me, the transition to work from home was fairly straightforward and easy.  As it became clear that we would be disrupted in the classroom this semester, I began backing up all of my digital files and gathering essential supplies in a box to take home. 

Working from home has also been fairly easy.  I set up a card table in a room that we already use as an office, and simply plugged in my laptop.

Co-Working from the home office!

We have reliable wifi in the house.  I have multiple devices that I can use to teach, and sketch, and give feedback to my students.  Coffee is made most afternoons.  

Afternoon Coffee is an added bonus to WFH

My children also have multiple devices, and are old enough to be mostly self sufficient in their e-learning.  Aside from the newness of being home all the time – my job continues without major disruptions.

Studio desk critiques from the home office

The same cannot be said for my students.

If there is one aspect of this that I severely underestimated in advance, it was how difficult this would be for some of our students.

I think it has been a much more difficult transition for our students.

Their lives, and social (educational) support systems have been entirely disrupted.

Some students are struggling to work from home.  They might lack motivation.  They are lonely, and miss their classmates. They might have no space to work at home.  Maybe they suddenly have family demands or dynamics that have changed, interrupting their ability to work

Their wifi is spotty.  Their laptop is too old to download the required software.

They miss the architectural design studio, which was their creative space filled with like-minded peers. 

Maybe the students who hung out in studio all of the time did so because they didn’t want to be at home?

Some students are scared.  Scared of becoming sick.

Some students have relatives who have become sick.

One of my students works in a nursing care facility, where patients have died of COVID.  He is required to live there full time to limit the traffic in and out of the facility.

Many students have had their work schedules entirely disrupted.  Some are essential employees, and now are being scheduled for 10 hour shifts, or new shifts, or weird times. 

Some students have lost their jobs.

The stories my students tell are many, and varied.

This has been a major disruption for many of them.

For me, less so.  I need to remember that.

In spite of all of this, my second year design studio continues on.  I have actually been really impressed with the student’s persistence and determination to keep their education moving forward. 

They still find moments of levity, however, in spite of everything.

Arch 2202 student presenting a precedent study.....

This Architectural Record article addresses many of these same issues and discusses how this might impact the future of architectural education moving forward.