Representatives from Coastal Studio and the DesignBuild-Exchange are headed to the 2018 ACSA Annual General Meeting in Denver, Colorado! We are hosting a Special Focus Session on Friday, Mach 16th from 11am - 1230pm. Join us for a discussion about the DesignBuild-Exchange's networking and digital database initiatives! Click the image for more info.
Hope to see you there!
A fly over done by Julian Parkinson. Dynamic landscape, dynamic build. Thanks Julian.
The site has been cleaned of all debris, organized and re-organized. We are ready to turn the page in the Coastal Studio notebook. Until next year.
Coastal Studio is excited to reveal our concrete walls that will begin to shape the Highlands National Park Gridshell. This phase of the project was a labour of love, executed by approximately 40 students across North America! Stay tuned in the coming months to see how the gridshell laths anchor to these perimeter walls and begin to take form.
Photos by: Sarah Dede + Dr. Johanna Amos
Want to know what it is like being a part of Coastal Studio? Well, follow Tom around the Highlands National Park building site to learn more!
Are you a Dalhousie M1 or B3 student joining our freelab? Well here is a glimpse of what an average day may look like, getting your hands dirty while enjoying the outdoors!
Two Week Freelab Overview:
Students will be fully immersed in the beautiful Highland National Park, as they will be living and working outdoors. During the day students will be partnering with the M1 class to work on the gridshell structure. Tasks include but are not limited to, gabions, concrete walls, lath work, and furniture design. During the evening and on days off students can enjoy team dinners, take in a late-night swim at the beach or fallen quarry, or gather for a campfire under the stars.
We dug up some old footage of our farmers market project under construction in 2014, check it out:
Our footage is now being played in Vienna at the 'HANDS ON enhancing architectural education' conference. Architecture Schools from around the globe will be displaying their students design-build projects as part of the exhibition. All thanks to the Vienna University of Technology!
Practice makes perfect - testing to find the very best concrete for our Highlands Gridshell Project!
Photos by: Alexandre Morier
Footage Captured by: Emily Cassidy
This post seeks to highlight what Coastal Studio considers the three major benefits of Design Build in Architectural Education.
1.
The first major benefit of student led design build is this idea of collaboration, in its all encompassing sense. For most students entering a design-build studio, it will be the first time they work with clients, communicate with contacted trades, and really interject their designs into fairly close nit communities. Additionally, this experience allows them to collaborate with the everyday pedestrian. Understanding the strengths gained from this multi-disciplinary approach of working is essential for young architects who strive to create thoughtful and contextualized architecture.
2.
The second major benefit can be described under this notion of flexibility. Design build highlights problem solving to the extreme. In architecture school traditionally students work on projects that are never realized, while in a design build studio they are forced by real constraints. This prepares students for a vastly more practical understanding of the real working world.
3.
Finally, the last benefit we (Coastal Studio) want to highlight is this idea of the tactile learning experience. Having the ability to not only pick and choose a material palette, but going out, sourcing materials, working with them, and truly understanding the limits of material expression and application. As a research unit we feel this is a rare but invaluable skill that all designers, and makers alike should understand and celebrate.
Of course, the list goes on but the aforementioned benefits may give you a glimpse into why design build education matters in todays architectural discourse!
![[ Graduate Research Assistants learning the ins and outs of surveying! Photo by: Julian Parkinson ]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/560ad543e4b0b5edb9ec9896/1463057945568-Y325H4YTRTXEJRPOJTCV/051A3212.jpg)
[ Graduate Research Assistants learning the ins and outs of surveying! Photo by: Julian Parkinson ]
Want to find out more about our research unit? Check out our latest article on Dalhousie Alumni News!
http://alumni.dal.ca/news/34601/
We are thrilled to have Julian Parkinson (an architectural photography guru) on board to help capture our projects both past and present! Here is a sneak peak of his recent shoot at the brick-shell. In the next few months Julian will also be creating a short film that intends to celebrate the spirit of our current build in the Highlands National Park.
Keep checking in, exciting stuff is on the rise!
