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Design-build educators talk pedagogy and real politick. Since the inauguration of the Yale Building Project in 1967, bolstered by Samuel Mockbee’s Rural Studio work through the 1990s, design-build workshops have flowered in universities throughout the U.S. From the start, student-run design-build conflated with community action, and as a result these real-world classrooms have produced landmark examples of socially responsible architecture. This academic phenomenon continues to achieve practical solutions that inspire the design community at large and produce young activists as well as knowledgeable architects. Recently, we invited several leading professors to join us in a telephone roundtable to discuss the

Design-build educators talk pedagogy and real politick. Architectural Record: Steve, I’ve heard that you think design-build studios should operate under the radar rather than speak with the press.  Steve Badanes: I might have said it once, but I think everybody is here for a reason. We’re in constant fundraising mode. And any media attention helps us gain credibility with our schools, which are always questioning what we do, and with the profession in general. Photos © Michael Moran Instead of taking on one of its usual city-based clients, in 2006 The Design Workshop, a program of Parsons The New School

Design-build educators talk pedagogy and real politick. AR: Deciding whether students should participate in design-build earlier or later in their academic careers makes me wonder, more generally, Do any of you consciously try to differentiate your design-build studio from one of your colleague’s? Lewis: We respond not to other design-build programs but to local conditions—the constraints, obligations, possibilities, and opportunities that exist. Inevitably you learn from the other programs to find out what works and what hasn’t. But the internal logistics of, say, trying to build in New York City helps shape the identity of the program. Geography and institution

Design-build educators talk pedagogy and real politick.

Design-build educators talk pedagogy and real politick. AR: Adam, Andrew, and Dan, you’ve all inherited your programs. How have you dealt with that legacy, or shaped these studios in your image? Hopfner: This is my second year directing the Yale Building Project. I take the stance very strongly that I do not have authorship. I think there’s a danger in that, and I’m certainly not teaching to get my aesthetic agenda across. Photos courtesy Steve Badanes (top); © Susan Surface (above). Steve Badanes recommends that design-build studios take on small public spaces, such as the Garden Gathering Place his University

Design-build educators talk pedagogy and real politick. AR: What long-term effects have your design-build programs wrought on their communities? Are community members learning new construction skills, like the Navajos, for example? Photos © Timothy Hursley Thanks to the Rural Studio’s long-term engagement with the surrounding community, design-build participants’ works are getting bigger and affecting more people. Andrew Freear says the 40-acre Lion’s Park (top), Hale County Animal Shelter project (middle), and Hale County Hospital courtyard renovation (above) are emblematic of that sea change. Louis: What I’ve found, especially with the Rosie Joe House, is that it afforded her the opportunity

Architectural Record: What inspired you to take on relief work?

Almost three years after Hurricane Katrina pushed a 30-foot-high surge of water through East Biloxi, Mississippi, tall weeds grow along streets once lined with houses.

The Gulf Coast Community Design Studio provides a model for rebuilding after Katrina. “We’re not looking to make a sweetened vernacular,” Perkes explains. “If anything, we’re looking for something energetic or a bit more robust.” A striking butterfly roof allows the house for Le and Nghia Tran (opposite) to fit gracefully under mature trees and directs runoff to a cistern to water the garden. Working with students from Penn State University, as well as University of Texas, Austin professor Serge Palleroni and Bryan Bell of the Charlotte-based social-outreach organization Design Corps, the studio designed a fretwork of wooden braces to

Almost three years after Hurricane Katrina pushed a 30-foot-high surge of water through East Biloxi, Mississippi, tall weeds grow along streets once lined with houses. Biloxi’s casinos have been reconstructed, larger than their former selves.