II - Scholarship

Doyle + Whitehead
The Lore of Building Experience
imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is
education as the practice of freedom.” 22
While the academy is not paradise, it is inspiring and energizing
to pursue educational agendas that move beyond the
constraints of architectural practice. The work presented here is
not intended to discourage or dismiss the importance of designbuild,
rather it is a call to clarify what specifically makes these
studios valuable. Canizaro offers a useful list: to gain
construction experience, as a form of community service, for a
larger vision of professional practice, as a critique of academia,
for enhanced awareness of place, to enhance collaborative
skills, to explore new methods of project delivery, and to
explore materials and materiality. 23
Figure 11: Fabricating Potentials Studio. S. Doyle studio, Spring 2016.
In education, design-build is a pedagogical alternative to the
theoretical, desk-based, and media-driven (drawings, models,
digital models) design process commonly featured in design
schools. Design-build studios, which have become popular in
recent years at many schools, provide an excellent venue for
the assimilation of technical knowledge. Architecture has
always been a service profession, but it has traditionally served
only those who can afford it. By working for clients who do not
normally have access to architects, students are exposed to
community outreach and to the notion of society as our real
client. Alternatively, working in pursuit of research and on behalf
of the discipline is a viable model of design-build.
As Iowa State develops a way forward, the goal is to create a
research-based program which focuses on construction
methods, fabrication technologies, and material practice. The
first step in this re-tooling was to create an institutional and
conceptual space for this work: the ISU Computation +
Construction Lab (CCL) which aims to create from the existing
framework of design-build a new framework of computation
and construction. By linking computation to construction this
pedagogic shift harnesses advances in computation as tools of
improving construction (robotics, CNC) rather than as tools of
representation (renderings, models). By freeing the design-build
from the scope of site and client the studios are able to conduct
research and focus more rigorously upon material and
structural innovation and developing technologies. This is not an
abandonment of Service-Learning rather a reconsideration of
how architecture can be serve the public, the discipline of
architecture, and educational agendas, simultaneously.
The ambition of the ISU CCL is to critically engage new digital
fabrication technologies in the pursuit of public engagement, an
exploration termed ‘insurgent architecture’ by Corser and Gore.
In Spaces of Hope, David Harvey 24 describes a theoretical
political actor called ‘the insurgent architect,’ who, ‘in addition
to the speculative imagination which he or she necessarily
employs, has available some special resources for critique,
resources from which to generate alternative visions as to what
might be possible.’ 25 The promise of the ‘insurgent architect’ is
the ability to simultaneously create tools for transformative
action and to develop visions of new social realities. 26 The CCL
harnesses the energy of ‘insurgence’ though not all of its
methods. As a research agenda, it advances and expands the
possibility of public engagement, critique, and ‘doing’ through
architecture at Iowa State.
The goal is to present architectural possibilities: not a
retrenchment of existing conditions, but fragments of potential
futures. Within these futures ‘not doing’ or new modes of
‘doing’ must remain viable options and equally powerful
alternatives for design-build pedagogies.
Acknowledgments
Students: Shawn Barron, Noel Gonzalez, Cynthia McCall, T.J.
Hammersland, Mark Moeckl, Saranya Panchaseelan, Kimya
Salari, Sai Mohan Ranga Rao Ummadisetty
Project Team: Structural Engineer: Raker Rhodes Engineering,
LLC, Concrete: Concrete Technology Inc, Framing: Hildreth
Construction, Lighting: A&W Electric Incorporated
Funding: The project was funded through a donation by Chuck
Bishop (BS 1980 Engineering), president of Bishop
Engineering in Des Moines, in honor of his mother. Additional
support was provided by the Stan G. Thurston Professorship in
Design Build; the College of Design; the Department of
Architecture; Institute for Design Research and Outreach and
the City of Urbandale Parks and Recreation.
Notes
1 Dewey, John. Experience and Education, 1938.
2 Venice Biennale 2016 curatorial statement Alejandro Aravena.
Accessed January 2017.
http://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/index.html
3 Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York: Penguin, 11-12. 1977
4 Canizaro, Vincent B. Design-Build in Architectural Education:
Motivations, Practices, Challenges, Successes and Failures. Archnet-
IJAR, International Journal of Architectural Research, Volume 6, Issue
3, November 2012.
5 Gjertson, W. Geoff “House Divided: Challenges to Design-build from
Within” ACSA Fall Conference Proceedings: Local Identities / Global
Challenges, 23-35, 2011.
6 Canizaro, 2012.
7 R. Whitehead & C. Rogers, “All Hands-on Deck: Instructors as
Collaborators and the Modified Dynamics of Design Build
Instruction,” Annual conference, National Conference on the
Beginning Design Student (NCBDS), University of Cal Poly San Luis
Obispo, Feb. 25-28, 2016.
8 Iowa State University Mission and Vision Website. Accessed January
2017. http://www.president.iastate.edu/mission
9 Urbandale Parks and Recreation Website. Accessed January 2017.
http://www.urbandaleparksandrec.org/170/Parks-Recreation
10 Couple Donates 'Stunning' Arboretum to Urbandale. Urbandale
Patch. June 2012. Accessed January 2017.
http://patch.com/iowa/urbandale/couple-donates-stunningarboretum-to-urbandale
11 City of Urbandale Profile. Accessed January 2017.
http://www.urbandale.org/DocumentCenter/View/259
12 NCARB Rules of Conduct. http://www.ncarb.org/Getting-an-Initial-
License/~/media/Files/PDF/Special-Paper/Rules_of_Conduct.pdf
Accessed January 2017.
13 Canizaro, 2012.
14 Design-Build Exchange (dbX) Website. Accessed January 2017.
https://db-x.org/about/ “
15 The Design Build Exchange Europe. Accessed January 2017.
http://www.dbxchange.eu/.
16 The Live Project Network. Accessed January 2017. .
http://liveprojectsnetwork.org/
17 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture 2014 Fall
Conference | WORKING OUT: Thinking While Building Website.
Accessed January 2017. http://www.acsa-arch.org/programsevents/conferences/fall-conference/2014-fall-conference.
18 Architecture 'Live Projects' Pedagogy International Symposium
2012 Website. Accessed 2017.
http://architecture.brookes.ac.uk/research/symposia/liveprojects201
2/index.html
19 Boyer, Ernest and Lee Mitgang. Building Community: A New Future
for Architecture Education and Practice: A Special Report. 1996
20 Hinson, David. Design as Research: Learning from Doing in the
Design-Build Studio. Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol.
61, No. 1, Architectural Design as Research, Scholarship, and Inquiry
(Sep., 2007), pp. 23-26
21 Canizaro, 2012.
22 bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as a Practice of
Freedom (New York: Routledge, 1994, p. 207)
23 Canizaro, 2012.
24 David Harvey. Spaces of Hope. University of California Press, 2000.
25 Harvey, 2000.
26 Corser, Rob and Nils Gore. Insurgent Architecture an Alternative
Approach to Design-Build. Journal of Architectural Education. Volume
62, Issue 4, 32-27, 2009.
Shelby Elizabeth Doyle | 269