LECTURE
Location: Albany, Minnesota
Typology: Guest Speaker
Date: Spring 2019
Model Materials: Glue, Wood
Software Used: Illustrator, Photoshop, PowerPoint, Rhino
At the beginning of the spring semester of 2019, I received an email from a former art teacher, Ridel Curtis, asking me to come in and give a presentation to her students; the goal was to show the importance of art in the professional field. Architecture is possibly the best career that merges the arts and business. Ridel Curtis was an art teacher whom I respected highly back when I went to Albany Senior High, so when she contacted me I wasn’t surprised. During this semester I was seeing architecture as more than just buildings, so having an opportunity to teach students the meaning of architecture was something I was excited to do. At the end of February, I prepared a presentation that introduced myself and architecture as well as creating a small assignment that allowed the students to see the beginning stages of the architectural design process.
The assignment I created was a simple activity inspired by one of the first projects I had during my freshman year. Part one was to create a client. I wanted the students to design around a human or a being and give a little backstory to that occupant. Being an ambiguous activity, any client was possible. Once they created that client, the next step was to create a space using one inch by one-inch cubes. The diagrams given to the students showed them to stay within a four inch by four-inch diameter, showing the restrictions within architecture whether it comes from the client or by code. At the end of the class, I realized how much time was needed to complete the activity. But the students worked hard to try to finish. Some students created dog houses, fish aquariums, garages for their snowmobiles, and abstract dream homes. The student who create a spa for Zac Efron was easily the highlight of the lecture. Teaching the students what architecture is was very exciting even though it was traumatic walking through the high school that I graduated from.
