I recently collaborated with three other architects from LinkedIn on a article about Architectural Marketing for different Market Sectors. The Article was published today in an online magazine called Design. It is published from a company in Namibia and not only offers editorials, but has some really great articles about Architectural Projects in that country. Please have a look at the article and the magazine as a whole!!

  redsand.com.na

On Saturday, October 19th, I spent the day participating in a workshop where architectural professionals worked with local school teachers to teach methods on how to teach Architecture to their students. 

The day was spent creating diagramming drawings, drawing illustrations of sections, building models, site planning, programming of a new greenhouse for their school and generally sharing our knowledge with the teachers. (I have included some shots of the images I created below.) The day was fun in that we did a lot of activities that took me back to my days in studio. Some of the activities we seldom ever do in the workplace. I cannot remember the last time I picked up an Xacto knife to make a study model!

It was a great day filled with knowledge exchanges, collaboration, and making new friends. If you have the opportunity to join one these workshops, do it. It will be awesome!

If you want to know how to become involved, just click the logo and you'll go to the Architecture and Children website.

This is part of a larger initiative to create a program where Architects volunteer their time to go out into the public school system for 1-2 hours a week, for 8 -10 weeks, to assist in teaching elementary school age children about architecture.  The idea behind the program is that by learning how to think differently, to have exposure to Architecture, sketching, model making, and other architecture methods, children will broaden their interest base and their knowledge base. Ultimately, they become better students and will create an active interest in architecture and art.

This program, lead by Anne Taylor of School Zone Inc and Architecture for Children, has guided these workshops for more than 30 years. The program itself has been taught in 4 countries (Finland, Turkey, Japan, and the United States (not all states)) and has become part of the curriculum in all but the United States. Anne has been teaching this program in several states where there are now programs annually that bring Architecture professionals into the schools.  Here are some links to other states and countries with programs initiated by Anne or other architectural educators:

Oregon - Architects in Schools - https://af-oregon.org/programs/architects-in-schools

Buffalo, New York - Architecture + Education - http://www.buffaloarchitecture.org/ae2013programdetails

Wisconsin - Architects in Schools - http://www.aiaw.org/education/ais.shtml

Sendai, Japan - Architecture and Children - architecture-and-children-sendai.blogspot.jp