Pub. 5 2017 Directory

8 THE MONTANA ARCHITECT | 2017 | www.aia-mt.org Engaged Studio Advanced Level of Design Education “The engaged studio is the best exemplar of a content-based studio at the most advanced level of design education.” Marivn J. Malecha, FAIA, Reconfiguration: in the study and practice of design and architecture, 2002, p. 51 A braham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act in 1862 giving status to education in the agricultural and mechanical arts. This act recognized the importance of an applied education that was engaged with quotidian, technical and domestic enterprise. It placed value on community application and broad subscription. In 1930, an update of the law enumerated architecture and engineering as the ‘mechanical arts’ referred to in the original version. Architecture continues to be an essential part of Montana State’s land-grant mission by conducting engaged studios including: professional interaction, community based problem initi- ation, the Community Design Center (CDC), and ‘service learning’ studios that require documentation, reflection and evaluation of individual and community based interactions. Marvin Malecha, former President of the American Institute of Architects and former President of the Associated Collegiate Schools of Architecture, writes about the importance of the ‘engaged stu- dio’ in his book on the reconfiguration of architecture practice and architecture education. He argues cogently for a broader vision that includes more sectors of the community, greater breadth of engage- ment, and a more collaborative pedagogy. This view of Architecture education parallels discrete developments in the structure and logic of contemporary practice; in my estimation, the profession is leading this reconfiguration and the future is exciting. In order to meet this challenge, the School is developing closer ties with the profession by inviting firms to counsel and collaborate with individual studios. This is particularly important with ‘experience-rich’ architecture, in- cluding high rise, healthcare and sports programs that demand a rich, focused awareness of specialized building types. Community based project initiation opens up aesthetic and technical aspirations to ‘real’ clients—members of the community who meet with the studio and respond directly, and even individually, to student proposals. This is a fecund area of study that begins to address the urban, social and environmental concomitants of designing the built environment. We hope to develop areas of research/scholarship cen- tered on issues that are circulating in our culture, like the Tiny House initiative, which will provide constructible and livable solutions to the chronically homeless for the Gallatin Valley. Structured within this effort are interesting questions of material experimentation, construction process, social organization and energy—how does one accommodate energy concerns in a cold climate that also requires significant air change in a small space? Community based projects often generate visions that encourage professional work; the results D. ANDREW (ANDY) VERNOOY, AIA