In Boston MA and Washington DC, Center for Design Research (CDR) faculty and students move beyond university boundaries in search of experiential learning opportunities. In DC, with the National Building Museum (NBM) the Center kicked off a collaboration that seeks to leverage subject matter expertise and global networks to co-develop a framework to understand, elevate, and communicate the process of building buildings and infrastructure and the substantial impact of people that build them.

The collaboration launched this month with a future visioning workshop at the NBM co-facilitated by the Director of Virginia Tech’s Washington Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC) Susan Piedmont-Palladino and CDR Director, Nathan King. Piedmont-Palladino, states, “This CDR/NBM collaboration…brings together students from both the Blacksburg and Alexandria campuses to work on a new initiative with a major cultural institution. Students, whether their interest is in construction innovation itself or in curation and cultural communications, will be joining this effort while it’s still being defined, and their voices will be instrumental in shaping the outcomes.”

Also joining the kickoff from Virginia Tech were Senior Research Fellow Robert Dunay, FAIA and CDR Fellow Bobby Vance, AIA; Braden Perryman, a PhD student in Design Research; and graduate students from the WAAC including Emma Menzies, 1st year M Arch, Marjie Bartlett, 5th year, and Shruti Mankale, 4th year exchange student from Cal Poly. For Professor Vance, “ it was an inspiring opportunity to imagine new forms of collaboration that connect pedagogy, innovation, and real-world impact - with the museum standing as a model for how institutions can shape the future of the built environment”

Simultaneously in Boston, Professor Shelley Martin and CDR Associate Faculty Giorgia Cannici joined 12 resident Virginia Tech Architecture students and 1 Hampton University student in Payette’s Boston office for project reviews. Now in its 5th year, the CDR/Payette OpenLab-Boston is hosted by Payette President and CEO and VT School of Architecture alum, Kevin Sullivan, FAIA. During the immersive semester students engage in a speculative comprehensive design project while working alongside professionals within an office environment. This year the focus of the studio is a complex urban design prompt engaging Boston’s Greenway which weaves along the downtown waterfront, where students develop programs and proposals for seven new buildings along the mile long site. Professor Martin, who serves as the center’s Associate Director of the CDR/Payette OpenLab -Boston, suggests that “The CDR/PAYETTE OpenLAB Boston studio advances the education of upper year architecture students in a multitude of ways by providing the density of professional practice experience, hands – on material research and fabrication, and the clarity of project development to resolution and production, all the while sustaining a discourse that ultimately shapes their own definition of the practice of architecture. On a day to day basis, the office becomes a classroom where students are tutored on their own studio projects by a diverse array of architects, from CEO to intern levels, each of whom cultivate and sustain a professional environment based on precise acts of making and research into all modes of the discipline, consistently delivering award-winning cutting edge projects worldwide. Here students work in the context of complex experiential learning, where their studio projects heuristically evolve and adjust to knowledge and experience gained through projects set in a real-world classroom.”

For Cannici, the program represents what is possible when industry and the academy engage in true collaboration during the development of the future of the profession. “The Boston Program allows students to bridge the gap between academia and practice in a way that is truly transformative. Payette’s culture of collaboration and its commitment to both craft and innovation provide an invaluable model for young designers. The speed and depth of their learning are remarkable—it’s impressive to witness how they begin to see themselves as professionals capable of contributing meaningfully to architectural discourse and practice.”

After a week to elaborate on the feedback, the lab was joined by Jim Bassett, Director of the School of Architecture who believes this experiential learning opportunity “reinforces that architecture is inherently collaborative and affirmed that rigorous inquiry and creative exploration can thrive within the framework of professional expectations. Students demonstrated an ability to navigate complex project variables while asserting thoughtful and original design formulations.”

“While both incredible student opportunities (the CDR/Payette OpenLab-Boston and the center’s collaboration with the NBM), these activities also create a chance for faculty development and the integration of new ideas and impact as we continue to grow the center. “ says Nathan King, CDR Director. The CDR looks forward to continued collaboration with Payette, NBM, and many others internal and external as it expands programs including new engagements with The National Museums of Tanzania and Kenya.

For more information about the CDR and its initiatives please contact nathanking@vt.edu