Faculty Collaboration On Documenting Our New School Of Architecture

What happens when the opportunity arises to use the expansion and renovation of one’s own School of Architecture as a teaching tool? The School of Architecture was recently awarded a 14.8 million dollar grant for the expansion and renovation of our current facility. The two year schedule for construction of the building was preceded by several years of applying for the grant and working through conceptual and preliminary design. In using the project as an educational tool, many topics could be included such as architectural, structural and HVAC design; budgeting and construction issues, and management of the project. Each of these topics, along with many others, could potentially be used as real life examples of the process of architecture, engineering and construction. The question is how to go about deciding the limits of what could or should be used in the classroom, and determining how to go about documenting the process at this time. This paper will look at the collaborative process of planning for the use of the project as a teaching tool, and arrive at a decision on the material that will be documented to be utilized in using the expansion and renovation of the School of Architecture as an educational experience for our students.