On Monday night, a crowd of 200 assembled at a construction site in Harlem for the first panel in a series called “Changing Architecture.” The discussion, moderated by Metropolis editor-in-chief Susan S. Szenasy, focused on the need for architects to develop a wider skill set that will enable them to take a more involved role in the building process of their projects.

Among the evening’s panelists was Peter Gluck, founder and principal at the firm Gluck+. He is a strong believer in architects getting their hands dirty at the construction site, working with communities, and being held responsible for a project coming in on budget.  He remarked that “Architectural thinking is seen as a luxury item not relevant to the real needs of the development process…Architects need to acquire multi-faceted knowledge and accept previously shunned responsibilities in order to change this perception.”

Design-build firms like Gluck+ have established successful practices by creating teams of skilled architects who have a firm grasp of making a building and everything that goes with it—a deep understanding of how their designs will be made by the craftsmen and builders involved. By utilizing this knowledge and following their work through the entire building process, the firm can ensure that the quality and cost of the finished building is in keeping with the needs of the developer and the surrounding community. Read more…

In the past few years, my job title has evolved from “Founder of the nonprofit Project H Design” to “high school shop teacher.” Some of you may be familiar with the work of Project H, and our high school design/build program Studio H. More than anything, we believe that youth have a raw brilliance that, coupled with some creative and construction skills, can change the face of the towns and cities we live in. We’ve built a 2,000-sq.ft. farmers market in rural North Carolina, and now our students in Berkeley, California, are building a solution for their school community: a free-standing classroom space using renovated / redesigned shipping containers, sculptural roof trusses, and a lot of sweat equity. In order to get there, we’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund our material costs. Please consider backing the project as our students prepare to hit the ground running in the next few weeks!

Here’s what you’ll find on our Kickstarter campaign page:

We are Studio H at REALM Charter School in Berkeley, California: One hands-on class, two teachers who know how to design and build, and twenty eager 10th-grade students who want to make our school and community a better place.

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Costa Rica, known for its biodiversity, national parks, and thriving eco-tourism, has a severe municipal solid waste management (MSWM) problem that threatens the health of local communities, destroying a fragile ecosystem whose well-being is of critical to those who live and visit there, as well as to the planet.

Starting in 2009 when I visited the village of Nosara for a research project that focused on the biomimetic potential of the dry tropical forest ecosystem in Northwestern Costa Rica, I’ve been hoping to develop a design-build project.  I wanted this project to have a positive impact on the local community as well as involve my students from New York.

sLAB Costa Rica is that project. The design-build initiative of the School of Architecture and Design at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) is lead by my studio, Holler Architecture. Based on our research last fall we developed designs for a communal recycling center in Nosara, Costa Rica— to be built by my students over this coming summer. To aid in their expenses for housing and in making a documentary by Ayana de Vos the students set up a Kickstarter campaign to raise $24,000 by May 21.

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FIT Sustainable Interior Environments graduate students (counter-clockwise from left) Stefanie Krzyzamiak,  Olesya Lyusaya, Christine Kwon, and Alina Coca with Andres, a Cooper Union graduate student and tour guide, at 41 Cooper Square in New York City.

Last summer, a small group of 10 design professionals enrolled in FIT’s MA program in Sustainable Interior Environments.  But our journey began months before, as each of us was contemplating the idea of starting graduate work in sustainability, asking ourselves: Why do we care? And what can we do about it? For most of us this was to be a career move, driven by our strong conviction that there must be a more responsible way to design and build. The urge to find answers we could believe in and practice these every day is what brought us together.

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Sunday, December 18, 2011. Installation day at the Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention Center. After a grueling series of rigorous design sessions, seemingly endless debates over major priorities and tiny details, and days of triumphs, disappointments, dust, sore muscles, festering frustrations, egos, ideas, and an uncountable number of small, stunning moments of resolution and grace, here we all were, together, staring over a jumbled pile of bookcases, drop cloths, and to-do lists at a looming 4:00 pm deadline.

Configuring (above) and assembling (middle and below) the modified, relocated bookcases

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My mother teaches at a similar facility to the Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention Center. Her stories made me apprehensive about this design-build initiative. But after listening to PNCA professor Barry Sanders passionately describe his experience teaching incarcerated kids and his rationale for investing in their education, I found myself committed to grasping what this project reached for.

Visiting artist Jack Sanders discusses the development of the diorama concept with students

Visiting artists Jack Sanders and Butch Anthony strategize for the build phase

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Depressing news from Kansas City: USA Today reported on Friday that Dan Rockhill’s celebrated Studio 804 design-build program has been unable to find buyers for its last two houses. As we reported in a feature story last February, Studio 804’s previous houses had attracted waiting lists of potential buyers. Unfortunately, the program moved into more expensive cutting-edge sustainable design—its 2009 house (pictured) earned Platinum LEED certification, and its new passive house is expected to do the same—just as the housing market imploded. Now, according to the USA Today article, Studio 804 is “essentially bankrupt,” with only $25 in its checking account.

Click here for information on how to donate money to Studio 804; to learn more about the program, read Daniel Akst’s feature story, “Platinum at a Price.”

Photo: the Design Revolution Road Show on Flickr

Last night, in San Francisco, Emily Pilloton and her merry band of  humanitarian-design crusaders hosted the official send-off for their Design Revolution Road Show, which will be touring the country in a vintage Airstream trailer between now and April. I am very sorry I wasn’t able to attend—the invite to the “parking lot party” touted a tantalizing trifecta of mobile food vendors: one taco truck, one pizza truck, and one cupcake truck. Fortunately, even if you can’t make it to any of the tour stops, Pilloton and company are posting copious photos and videos on their blog. In fact, the Road Show has already made three pre-kickoff stops, including one at Pilloton’s alma mater, Redwood High School.

One other piece of related news: Pilloton’s nonprofit, Project H Design, is in the running for a $50,000 grant from Pepsi to help launch Studio H, a design-build program in the poorest county in North Carolina. It’s a terrific idea, so be sure to take a moment to vote for Studio H here.

You can also watch a video about Studio H, “the country’s first design, vocation, and community-service program in a public high school,” after the jump. Read more…