How to AIAS FBD @ UO by amicianametka

A 2021 Supplemental Guide To The UO Chapter of the AIAS Freedom by Design

HOW TO FBD @UO

Logo Cover Art Credit: Madison Merwine

A. Nametka

Co-Director 2020-2022

INTRO

No other club at the University of Oregon, in my opinion, has as much potential power to catalyze and implement change for the built environment as Freedom by Design (FBD). Its power comes from all the backing of a national organization (AIA and AIAS), the input and support of well-respected faculty, and the passion and idealism of its student leadership. These strengths also have the potential to present obstacles, for example, graduation happens, students leave, and without student leadership, there is no FBD. In fact, my compatriots and I took it upon ourselves to revive an abandoned FBD and document it so that no one needs to do this blindly again. You may wonder as you read this guide, who is this random person, and what do they know about all this? I am an M.Arch (Masters of Architecture) Track II student here at the Eugene campus typing away as cars zip down Franklin Boulevard outside the floor-to-ceiling window beside my studio desk on the 3rd floor of Lawrence Hall. After earning a BFA (Bachelors of Fine Art) in Interior Design in 2012, and working a few years for small firms and companies designing cabinetry, space planning, and selling furniture, I am back in school helping revitalize this awesome club and here to leave a little advice for you. This document is not a sole resource, not at all. The AIAS has a lot of resources for you, one of which is a helpful manual. This guide is a supplement to that manual and specifically applies to our AIAS chapter here at the University of Oregon. There are many other resources you will discover as you study here, and at the end of each section, or "step" of this guide, there is a list of reading that I used to write about that step. Many of the sources used to create this guide are assigned readings from classes, textbooks, and others that I promise will be useful to you in and after school. Best of Luck!

Repurposed Sesame Oil Drums. Image credit: Amicia Nametka

TABLE OF CONTENTS 01

Leadership: Who Me?

The FBD Toolbox

The Planning Part

The Designing Part

The Building Part

The Rewarding Part

Case Studies -The City is a House - Communikitchen

STEP 1 Leadership: Who, me? You are a leader. Congratulations! By answering the call to take up a role in FBD leadership you have opened the door to amazing experiences you won’t get in any regular club or course. The relationships and designs you will build with FBD will instill lessons and create memories that will stay with you throughout your career. While you may be worried about what exactly you’ve just agreed to, my favorite part about being a leader is; it’s not about you. My favorite part about FBD is it's really all up to you what you do with it! I recommend focusing on the diversity of strengths and experiences each team member brings to the group because that is really what this club is about. The big secret of leadership, as I see it, is about acting when something needs to be done. Leading is stepping up, raising your hand, and taking ownership of something you believe in doing. That’s what this initial step is about, first, I’ll give you a quick run-down of what the AIAS and FBD are. Then, I’ll help you figure out where to start, what’s in the FBD metaphorical toolbox, and some tips based on my own experience of what worked well, and what didn’t.

Planting an oak tree. Image credit: Amicia Nametka

WHO ARE WE?

The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) is an independent, nonprofit, studentrun organization focused on issues critical to architecture and the experience of education. Freedom by Design™ is the AIAS community service program that encourages students to radically impact and serve their communities by addressing issues through design and construction solutions. Ever heard of the AIA (American Institute of Architects)? If you haven’t, I suggest you take this moment to start to get familiar. This is a professional organization for architects in the United States and is a pivotal part of the industry. The AIA sets the standard of professional ethics, can be an authority when an architect does anything shady in the process of delivering a project, and they establish the professional norms and procedures architects use in 1 their practices. They have legal counsel, chapters all over the world, and the right to put AIA after your name can only be done according to their by-laws and based on your licensure status. This is important because this allows the typical consumer to recognize this institute’s legitimacy when attached to an appropriately trained and licensed architect. There are other professional architectural organizations out there, though none are as well established, or comprehensive as the AIA. Being concerned with all things architectural, that includes also the study of the subject and how people are educated to become an architect. Here at the Eugene campus of the University of Oregon, we host the local student chapter of the AIAS, and within that club, Freedom by Design (FBD). FBD is the community-service rm of the AIAS chapter. We are the hammer-in-hand contingent that physically builds the big ideas.

1. The American Institute of Architects “About” webpage goes into more detail at https://www.aia.org/about. It would be useful to know that if you haven’t taken the course all ready, ARCH 417 or Context of the Architectural Profession covers a lot of material not only about this professional organization and others, but also general project management, as well as methods of product delivery, such as the design-build model which is also described in this guide

The AIA is over 150 years old, the AIAS is about 100 years old, and our special little part, Freedom by Design (FBD) is the baby in this organizational chart becoming an official program of the AIAS in 2003. It was born as a side-project of a Denver architect looking to serve low-income Coloradans facing demeaning and dangerous barriers to a better quality of life at home.2 Since then, FBD has grown to hundreds of chapters all over the world. So, don’t forget, you aren’t doing this alone, and FBD is a part of the larger whole of the AIAS. There are support and resources there, and check out the next few steps to see all the ways the UO’s chapter of the AIAS and Freedom by Design both benefit from this symbiotic relationship.

Understanding the Relationship between FBD,AIAS, and the UO

2. The information in this section comes from the AIAS Freedom by Design Manual, which is the document this guide is a University of Oregon Chapter-specific supplement to. See the complete 2018 manual here: https://www.aias.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/01/fbd_manual_2018.pdf

FURTHER READING Check out these resources for more context on Step 1.

No. 01 — AIA Handbook The American Institute of Architects. (2014). The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

No. 02 — FBD Manual The American Institute of Architecture Students Freedom by Design Manual. (n.d.). Freedom by Design | Architecture Community Service | AIAS. Retrieved from The American Institute of Architects

STEP 2 The FBD Toolbox

By joining a leadership position with AIAS and FBD you have inherited: A Toolbox. Yes, there literally is a Freedom by Design Toolbox thanks to the current Co-Director, Joshua Fox. However, I am referring to this as a metaphorical toolbox that is yours to pull from, edit, and add to as FBD leadership. I encourage you to do the same with this guide as well. I hope that UO AIAS FBD leadership can continue to pass down this cumulative knowledge with future leaders, and to this end, I am leaving this guide as a living digital document. Bonus! You also get to learn from my mistakes so you don’t have to repeat them. I mean, you can if you want, I am powerless to stop you, but if it was me, I’d keep this guide handy. In discussing this step, I will talk about this metaphorical "toolbox,” what it contains, and how it can help keep FBD functional, effective, and thriving.

The real toolbox. Image Credit: Amicia Nametka

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

In the same way that a toolbox has divided sections, separate compartments, and lift-out trays, thanks to my cohort and I, there is now a system in place for you to get things started. Unfortunately, we had to start from scratch because no students were around from the previous FBD iterations. There wasn't much readily available information about how this group might operate outside of the AIAS FBD 48-page manual, which, let’s be honest, offers a marginal amount of information. It had been a couple of years since anyone at U of O took it upon themselves to organize a community-minded design-build project. As FBD leadership, you have 3 compartments in your toolbox to pull from; AIAS resources, University support, and everything that we have set up for you including the benefit of our learning process.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK Not Reading the Instructions First A student-run club is a powerful environment for us as students, we have resources and free agency to build wonderful things. Our re-creation of the club has been an effort undertaken while still doing all the other work of earning a degree and making sure we paid our rents involved. That is no small feat, and as you may have noticed, the UO Architecture program can be very demanding. There is a strong “wing-it” vibe in the architecture clubs, but not taking time to stop and really digest how FBD is supposed to operate, left us ignorant of what we needed to ask for. Instead, we just “went for it.” The reborn FBD’s first project was very much an explosion of activity that was quite chaotic and seemed like, at times, it might not end well. Please check out the “City as a House” case study for more on that. Stuck In Reverse: Design First, Organize Later. Revitalizing FBD in 2019-2020 was initiated in two phases; first, by a single student wanting to make a difference, his name was Adam Absu-Sukheila. This initial beginning was humble and didn’t really bloom until the second phase: a project and that was when current co-director Joshua Fox, and myself got involved. A visiting professor, Dr. Menna Agha, and a student, Hayley Stacy had a project to build and research funding to put into it. Making up the process as we went, we jumped right into looking for a community partner.

Ignoring the pace of a 10-week term. Architecture programs all over the world have different curricula and structure. For those new to the 10-week term cycle, this quarter term and the workload overall can be a lot to manage before considering adding an extracurricular such as AIAS and FBD. The pedagogical debate over the best way to educate upand-coming architects has been long, lively, and no more passionately argued than over post-review beers by 'architorture survivors,' I mean architecture students, themselves.

Permitted Use via the Creative Commons. Retrieved from: https://successfularchistudent.com/15-architecture-studentmemes/

Research points to the continuing need to reduce the conflict between studio and academic 3 courses and a need to reduce course loads in a single term. We aren't going to discuss the number of energy drink cans on my studio desk at this moment, or how long I may have been awake in the last 24 hours, but there is well-documented evidence of college students having less than stellar sleep hygiene across the board, architecture students being among the worst. In the interest of taking care of ourselves and our AIAS team members, it is important to consider this when planning projects, events, and regular meetings. Trust me, you do not do your best work on minimal sleep.

WHAT DOES WORK Reading the Instructions As previously stated, I think the AIAS FBD Manual of 2018 offers a generalized overview of some things that are useful to know about managing a local chapter of FBD. Here I will highlight the elements I found most helpful once we put a pause on working projects in order to develop some much-needed infrastructure. Scheduling at Scale Both the national manual and this guide agree, setting up a routine and regular meeting supports group cohesion and helps to maintain productivity. To help you out, I have put together a sample 10-week term diagram illustrating the ebbs and flows of a 10-week term as I have experienced it over my previous year here at U of O. Consider though, that there are multiple time scales at play. Overlapping Time Scales

3. Brady, D. A. (1996). The Education of an Architect: Continuity and Change. Journal of Architectural Education, 32-49.

Considerations at the annual scale: Holidays Breaks in the academic calendar AIAS events such as FORUM, Grassroots, Etc. Graduations

Considerations at the month scale: Long weekends Birthdays Large On-Campus Events

Considerations at the term scale: Midterm and final dates Holidays Registration deadlines Scheduling During a Typical 10 Week Term

What I mean by that is, just like terms can be divided into halves, say before and after mid-terms and that might be the scale at which you will think of how many events you might have a term, at the same time there are 4 terms each year, and once annually there are elections for leadership positions within the AIAS group. In other words, 2 different time scales operate simultaneously. It can get overwhelming if you try to tackle all the scales at the same time. So, I like to separate them out first and consider each individually. It does not matter whether you work from large scale to small or vice versa because as soon as you move from one scale to another any conflicts will become clear. Scale can also come into the picture in terms of the scale of what your club is trying to achieve at the time. You could also describe that as the "scope" of your projects. A large design-build project may take a whole year with phases distributed over terms. On the other hand, some in-club housekeeping like a competition submission, or a Design-Build Lunch and Learn lecture might only need a couple of weeks or months’ worth of planning and execution. I will cover more about this in Step 4.

Organization: Currently, I am still debating the necessity of all the positions mentioned on pages 17-20 of the AIAS FBD Manual, and I think it may simply depend on the current goals of your FBD and the size of your membership. One recommendation I will emphasize is to ditch the hierarchical organizational chart you might be expecting to see here. The traditional chart is vertically oriented with big-wig boss-types all alone at the top and increasingly distant and separated from members the further they are from them in terms of authority. The alternative that we have been using is non-linear and non-hierarchical. Look at your FBD’s organization like a Spatial Composition scenario (ARCH 450 is the course on that subject if you haven't taken it already) To completely oversimplify the idea of spatial comp., it’s how things are organized relative to each other in space. The following are the minimum suggested team roles according to the manual, and right away I can tell you, we have been experimenting with something very different:

Suggested FBD Organization FBD Director Connects FBD chapter with local AIAS chapter and the National Office General oversight Annual Grassroots Attendee Leads client interviews and project selection Project Manager Oversees a specific project Sets up schedule Coordinates team members and the approval process Development Manager Fundraiser and locator of donated materials and develops fundraising strategies Public Relations (PR Manager) Aka, “Historian,” I like to call them Documentarians when in the context of a project Handle presentations Design & Construction Mentors Construction Mentor/Design Mentor may be the same person from what I gather and are there for guidance, constructive criticism, and hands-on training

Hierarchical Organizational Chart as Spatial Comp. Diagram

Our Current Organization FBD's organization is intentionally feminist and non-hierarchical in order to foster a more collectivistic culture based on teamwork, mutual respect, and support. Let’s think of it in terms of how it’s different from the suggested organization that was just outlined, and let’s start with the “Director.” This role I see as being ideally never just a single person, in fact, I think it would be ideal to have this be a cycling pair where one is the outgoing co-director and the other is the incoming co-director. Considering the AIAS guidance regarding leadership transitions, it is already suggested that incoming leadership shadow the current leadership, this revolving codirection idea simply codifies always sharing leadership.4This supports 2 important elements of the leadership transition; first, it helps to share the relatively large burden of the director role and protects against the potential for a leadership vacuum to result if no new director can be drafted by allowing for much slower more relaxed adoption of responsibilities. In practice, I was initially Project Manager when I began engaging with FBD and while the previous Director lead, with his successor shadowing in more of a Codirector role than seems to be suggested in the manual. Since then, I have become Codirector while my predecessor/Codirector prepares to graduate. We often found that the Project Manager and Director roles frequently overlapped anyway and this allows for more facile leadership. With good communication practices, this has allowed us to practically be in 2 places at once, where if one has a class or meeting and cannot represent FBD at a function or meeting the other could.

This brings me to a unique factor specific to the University of Oregon Chapter of AIAS that I think could present some interesting opportunities. U of O’s architecture program operates concurrently in 2 locations, one in Eugene, Oregon, and the other in Portland, Oregon. In the advent of this current pandemic age, we have become synchronistically engaged with increased frequency. We certainly ‘have the technology’ to leverage this circumstance for the benefit of both campuses. It seems entirely plausible that with a mere 2 hours drive time between the campuses, more collaboration could occur and if not physically, virtually. The Portland campus does not have an AIAS chapter of their own now and therefore misses out on the AIAS events here in Eugene, while conversely, Eugene lacks the far greater number of acclaimed architecture firms based in Portland. In general, our organization doesn’t have “managers,” instead, we operate as teams operating in concert with shared direction as described above. The teams are as follows; co-directors, logistics, public relations, and soon, I’d like to have dedicated mentor/consultants, thus eliminating the need to constantly recruit them every year.

Non-Hierarchichal Organizational Chart as Spatial Comp. Diagram

4. The information in this section comes from the AIAS 2017 Transitions Leaflet describing the annual leadership transition process. https://www.aias.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Transition-Leaflet.pdf

It’s been important to us to foster a culture where we empower each other to learn new skills and share what we know in pursuit of mutually agreed-upon goals. Additionally, there are a couple of other roles I have ideas for that might come to something in the future, or even inspire you to some better solution than has been found yet. One is the Alumni Ambassador. Sometimes, former members who graduated out of FBD and are now out in the working world have continued to stay in touch with the club and cheer-lead its potential to the surrounding community. When it comes to future fundraising and building relationships that could lead to potential projects, donated materials, or funding, I think such roles could be very supportive of FBD in the future. Additionally, my co-director and I have come across a handful of situations where we were greatly in need of someone familiar with the ins and outs of the university bureaucracy to help us navigate to the correct person in the proper department for arranging for one thing or another. There is no name for this role as yet, but "university liaison" or something similar might suffice. This has been especially necessary when attempting to navigate around issues of potential liability on the university’s behalf or when it has come to university-managed spending accounts. Now for the final piece of knowledge I have to deposit into this toolbox. While I have been able to organize for the creation of this guide for future AIAS FBD leadership, the University of Oregon has, not for lack of trying, not been able to create a process through which students can reasonably navigate university administrative channels for the purposes of doing an on-campus installation of art or temporary structure. In the past, students have been able to take part in oncampus builds for small structures near the river and tucked away on the campus properties to the north of Franklin Boulevard. At this point in time, some of those shelters could use some maintenance and repair. Who better than architecture students looking to get their hands dirty?

FURTHER READING Check out these resources for more context on Step 2.

No. 03 — JAE Journal of

Architectural Education Brady, D. A. (1996). The Education of an Architect: Continuity and Change. Journal of Architectural Education, 32-49.

No. 04 — AIAS 2017 Transitions

Leaflet AIAS 2017 Transitions Leaflet describing the annual leadership transition process. https://www.aias.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/03/Transition-Leaflet.pdf

STEP 3 The Planning Part This step is all about the logistics, or 'how' of making FBD projects happen. The "how" involves managing time, money, and human resources. A lot of organization is involved and success depends on the participation of the whole team. It is to the benefit of the team that it includes a diversity of members with as many different skills sets and experiences as you can find. Recruiting from all levels of the program, especially from the first and second years as well as the graduate students will bring fresh perspectives, both experienced and inexperienced designers, and will help maintain the membership of the club. The larger the membership, the larger projects you can tackle and the more people you will have to delegate to. That helps keep the work of FBD from being too burdensome to continue in addition to everything else. Like the adage says, "many hands make light work." Recruiting and organizing the membership is just one part, some important tools I will include in this step deal with communication, management tools, and of course, some more tips from what we learned along the way. Communication is vital to planning a successful project and its effectiveness depends on leadership, the tools available, and on the team members and their communication skills. The various applications and tools I will mention here will undoubtedly change over time and you may even know others not mentioned here, but the principles remain the same. Successful projects rely on good communication and as co-director, one of the main ways I lead is by directing and stimulating communication within our group, with our stakeholders, and with university leadership and faculty.

RECRUITING Aside from the team positions described in Step 2 of this guide, there are many other team members that even though they may not have a titled role, are just as important to making the whole team run smoothly, not get burnt out, and execute projects. In the team organization I described in Step 2, I illustrated how we have created teams within the club; directors, PR (public relations), logistics, and mentor/consultants. When new members come into the club, I like to orient them to how things are organized and ask them if they are particularly interested in, or drawn to any of the teams as I have described them. It may be that they want to develop more skills in an area they feel weak in, or they excel at a certain task and would like to have an easier time contributing what they already know rather than adding something new. Based on the conversation they join the team of their choice. Once someone is on a team, they can assist on any team’s task if needed. I always encourage checking in with each other in regular meetings to see if anyone could use a little extra support for any reason. This can lead to the overlapping of people across teams but ultimately strengthens the whole.

Don't forget to check in with team members in meetings to see how they are doing, or if they need any extra support.

Applications Used By AIAS FBD for Communication

In order to facilitate arranging these teams, it is important to spend a little time each term on a recruiting initiative. Generally, this involves getting the word out via posters, on campus, social media posts, tabling on campus, and events. Starting with social media, we have found that Instagram is the most popular of the social media platforms but that landscape is always changing. For example, Discord servers recently became another way that various student groups have begun to connect. The university has a platform for clubs called Engage which is a campus-wide resource for students to find clubs to join and events to attend. To be completely honest, this is not a heavily utilized platform for our organization as we are very much architecture-program specific and not open to membership from other majors. Technically, there is also a Facebook page but that is not a particularly active avenue to connect with the club either.

Finally, there is the AIAS UO website and the FBD page on the site. One of our projects this fall has been to give that space a digital face-lift to make it more engaging and up to date. By maintaining the platforms that are the most utilized and being sure to link them such that visiting one can easily direct you to the others is an important way for FBD to connect with new potential members as well as provide a point of reference for people out in the community to see and get a feel for what our organization is all about. I encourage you to find new and interesting ways to connect with students outside the club beyond what we have built here. As an example of some creativity, we recently applied to create a display in three glass cases on the first floor of Lawrence Hall by installing some pieces leftover from a previous project found in our club office. Rather than donate them immediately, we decided to use their eye-catching forms to pique passing students’ interest and hopefully, attract them to our club.

COMMUNICATION Using the Right Communication Method

Now let’s focus on communication within the AIAS and FBD. There are several tools used for this and currently, the main application used is called “Slack.” Slack allows for communication with AIAS and is a useful way of getting questions to the right person and answered quickly. While files can be shared on Slack, the bulk of that occurs via a Google Drive account containing folders that are organized by year. Within the AIAS folders on the shared Google Drive account, there is a folder specifically for FBD.

Since the pandemic, we have employed video-meeting applications like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. This has also been useful in our efforts to include the Portland Campus in our AIAS activities and even though in-person meetings are possible to do safely now, I have maintained the Zoom format for greater flexibility and accessibility. Some of these tools have additional organizational tools that I suggest making use of. My personal favorite is Microsoft Teams where video conferences, calendars, task assignments, and file-sharing can all happen on the same platform. I imagine this will continue to be a valuable format for organizing projects and team members as the University is planning on switching the email application from its current format to the Microsoft Outlook application. Another important aspect of these tools is how they also support record keeping. For example, AIAS and FBD meetings right now are run based on an agenda. That agenda is created before a regular meeting, updated during the meeting, and posted for everyone to refer to later. From these agendas, it is much easier to distribute assignments for who will be handling which task and what the deadlines associated with those tasks are. I strongly advocate always looking for ways to work smarter, not harder. The FBD manual highlights the importance of communication as well on page 21 under “things to consider” and some good points are raised. I will say that feedback is an important and underutilized tool. I particularly appreciate the assertion to keep feedback specific and constructive but I would like to add to that, make it fun. I am including an example of a feedback diagram that might be created on Miro for reviewing how a project went and what we might like to change next time. It was out of those conversations that this guide came to be, so there’s no denying its usefulness. When I am helping to facilitate our group meetings and maintain effectiveness, I keep a couple of important things in mind; time management, improving collaboration and encouraging everyone to contribute. By setting the standard for the methods we will use and the guidelines for doing so, the codirector can ensure effective communication.5

A MiroYour board feedback NFP Name SDGanalysis Progresstool Report 2020 5. M. P. Stephen Emmitt, Architectural Management and International Research & Practice (pp. 19-33). West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

WHO DOES WHAT WHEN PLANNING When looking at the structure of FBD in the context of planning and communication, a lot of the PR team's responsibilities are in this arena. These team members work on our visual messaging and online presence. They coordinate with the other FBD teams to get event information details, create and post social media messaging and create new ways to connect Arch students to AIAS Freedom by Design. They are the most directly engaged with the information being shared within the team and how it is shared with the larger campus community or stakeholders. The rest of the planning largely falls on the logistics team and the directors.

Team

Co-Directors

PR Team

Logistics

Mentors/ Consultants

Planning Role

Communication Role

Keeping track of the big picture Setting goals and milestones Maintaining communication between parties and teams

Ensuring everyone has opportunity to contribute Staying on task Respecting others time

Establishing social media posting schedule for events Identifying the intended audience for the information

Confirming the important details Crafting an effective message to get to the intended audience

Identifying the steps that need to be taken Arranging for space, equipment, and lead times

Meet regularly with team to review project schedule and design Offer training on materials, processes and tools, Provide guidance

Updating team on lead times, delays, and due dates Contacting volunteers and participants

Confer with team and client if needed Provide feedback on design process and concepts

FINDING FUNDING There are many ways of funding an FBD project and the smoothest method I have found so far is to partner with organizations that already have funding and some idea of what they want to achieve which leaves FBD to bring the design and the labor. Currently on the boards is a project which I have included as a case study where I have been talking with a local hospital initiative that would provide funding to build supportive spaces for a safe shelter location being hosted by a church. The church also has some money available to contribute and this leaves FBD to cover our design and transportation costs.

To cover things like that, in previous projects there have been research funds that are held by the university for mentors/consultants on the projects that could be drawn from if approved. Every year there is an allotment of money available to the chapter by the NCARB grant process if a representative, typically one or both co-directors, attends the FBD sessions at Grassroots. If you declare your next project before the grant deadlines an application for funding can follow and then a decision 3-4 weeks after the deadline. Key to all of this is having a ‘Fundraising Packet’ put together to be distributed to community members, clients, donors, and businesses that you want to approach for support. One funding resource specific to the university that we used to fund a single element of a previous project is The Holden Center which offers service grants via the Kilkenny Service and Leadership fund for up to $1000. Applications are accepted throughout the academic term. 6 Asking for materials as opposed to money is another good way to elicit donations and support the FBD mission. While volunteering over the summer I have come across organizations doing other church-hosted shelter builds and material costs being what they are were re-using salvaged materials. There is also the possibility of reaching out to construction firms that may need to recycle a certain amount of their materials who may be interested in donating to FBD.

6. Holden Center. (n.d.). Service Grant. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://holden.uoregon.edu/service-grant

SCOPE Planning for your project is impossible without first defining the scope of that project. As an example, to begin with I’d like to refer to the AIAS FBD scope expansion diagram. This is also included in the FBD manual and I am mentioning here as an illustration of one way of graphically describing scope. As you can see, “scope” is the definition of what is and is not included in a work effort. In this diagram a previous scope of physical barriers preventing universal access has expanded to include other types of barriers that could be included in an FBD project. Notice though, that the terms included are quite general, and when looking at broad categories like this, or even when you are first defining the scope of your own project that’s a perfectly fine place to start. However, as the design process ensues, clarifying the limits of what your team is going to handle and not is very important. It’s also very applicable to handling projects for the rest of your career and leads to understanding other necessary concepts like value-engineering. Scope is the clear definition of what is included in the work you will do for a client, and value-engineering refers to decisions that can be made to keep a project in budget. It can include opting for a lower cost material, or limiting the number of times you will perform site visits to limit transportation costs.

What is most vital is that the design never grows in scope or becomes more elaborate than the construction cost estimate can accommodate.7 In other words, your scope is determined by the resources you have available to do the work. If you have a small team, a limited amount of time, and not much in terms of shop space or material storage that puts hard limits on what your scope can be and you need to stay within those limits. The FBD manual offers some ways of thinking about the scope on page 24 when talking about project levels. It’s a good place to start. Just remember, costs can change drastically over time. When this happens, it’s called “scope creep” and usually occurs when changes need to be made, the client wants more services added, or the permitting process becomes overly complicated. I can give you a quick example of this from a project we are currently developing. In our upcoming Communikitchen project we were originally looking to provide some inexpensive micro-shelters for a church, in order to keep the costs as low as possible and final delivery as fast as possible. We looked at using an already developed design as a basis and adding a few improvements to customize to the client's needs. As the discussions moved forward issues relating to some landscaping around the shelters, or some screening elements came up and would have added a whole other design process. In order to keep things within scope, that being building shelters, we declined to add these other elements. This project has further shifted which I will share more about in the case studies, but the principle remains the same; be wary of the “scope creep.”

Permitted UseNFP via the Creative Your Name Commons. Retrieved from: SDG Progress Report 2020 https://www.flickr.com/photos/ros enfeldmedia/35473616510

7. Charles Pankow Foundation. (2014). Professional’s Guide to Managing the Design Phase (No. 9781557018410). BNI Publications Inc., Design-Build Institute of America.

FURTHER READING Check out these resources for more context on Step 3.

No. 05 — Architectural Management M. P. Stephen Emmitt, Architectural Management and International Research & Practice (pp. 19-33). West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

No. 06 — The Holden Center Holden Center. (n.d.). Service Grant. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://holden.uoregon.edu/service-grant

No. 07 — Professional’s Guide to

Managing the Design Phase Charles Pankow Foundation. (2014). Professional’s Guide to Managing the Design Phase (No. 9781557018410). BNI Publications Inc., Design-Build Institute of America.

STEP 4 The Designing Part

There are a lot of methods out there, and right now in school, especially in studios is largely your time to figure out what your own unique design process is by trying different approaches until something feels right. The process I layout here is one that I am still testing out but has been effective so far. Some basic principles are behind the methods and they are in alignment with the advocacy goals the AIAS promotes. The methods I will describe come from content that you will run into in ARCH 440 Human Context of Design and other classes. As I have been focusing on spatial justice as the core of my own study, I know there has been some bleed over into the FBD process as well. That is one of the great parts of this being a student-run group with constantly changing leadership, in that its membership affects the focus and theme of the work taken on.

Your NFP Name SDG Progress Report 2020

PRINCIPLE-BASED METHODS Our design principles, or values, are the intention that drives every part of the design process. FBD’s values are derived from the priorities exemplified in the AIA Code of Ethics, in the mission of AIAS, and informed by the priorities set by its UO chapter leadership. Put simply; sustainability, spatial justice, health, innovation, and community are our core values.

Sustainability

Innovation

Health

Spatial Justice

Community

In the context of observable climate change, it is a no-brainer that our designs ought to be sustainable. As in the case of sustainability, there is plenty still to be improved upon in terms of the health and safety of the built environment. There is more that can be done to not only combat the ‘sick-building syndrome’ of built structures but also design choices that when implemented can improve occupant health. Ideally, this also looks at health as a holistic concept that includes mental and emotional health as well as physical well-being. Equitability and inclusivity in our built environment are concepts we are still defining and understanding, and can only come as we dissect our systems of oppression and inequality. They must also be a part of new design work, as a rule. As we proceed in our careers, we must take these principles beyond the status quo now until there is nothing exceptional about meeting LEED qualifying standards, universal accessibility, or full inclusion. With these ideas taken as givens, let’s talk about ways we can use principles to inform the design process in FBD.

Since its inception, FBD has been a community-based design effort, and in our chapter’s work at UO we want to actively include the communities we are designing for in the design process. Achieving this involves consideration of what it means to be an architect. There is far too much on this subject to do justice in this guide so I will include some references but know there is a lot more out there. The following are three different lists that I have found useful to refer to when approaching a design problem and looking for a framework to investigate design problems in a way that honors the two-pronged priorities of FBD; innovation and community-centrism. Hopefully, these ideas will inspire you and your club. The first presents a set of questions to the designer about the place in which the design problem is situated. This is not about ‘place’ in terms of a site but in a larger philosophical sense, you will engage within ARCH 430 Architectural Contexts: Place and Culture. The second list considers the design process with design-build student projects in mind and not only how to approach the design process but what students gain from the process. Finally, the third list pertains to the participatory design process which acknowledges that successful design relies on the engagement of the user during the design process, not before and/or after.

UO AIAS FBD Charette Spring 2021 - Photo credit: Awar Meman

12 QUESTIONS EVERY DESIGNER SHOULD ASK:

7. Christie Johnson Coffin, J. Y. (2017). Making Places for People. New York: Routledge.

What is the story of this place?

Whose place is this?

Where is this place?

How big is this place?

What logic orders this place?

Does this place balance community and privacy?

What makes this place useful?

Does this place support health?

What makes this place sustainable?

Who likes this place?

What evidence is there this place will work?

Does this place foster social equity?

Rather than rehashing the content of ARCH 440 for you here, especially since Christie Coffin and Jenny Young do such an unapproachably good job, please see the references at the end of this step and consider these ideas when it comes to understanding the narrative of the place you are building, and the wellbeing of the people you design for. In the interest of time and your endurance as a reader, I certainly recommend taking advantage of other research and observation skills that you will learn in this program here at UO. Methods such as physical trace and behavioral observation in the environment, focused interviews, quality standardized questionnaires, and research can all help to inform your FBD’s designs. 8

8. Zeisel, J. (2006). Inquiry by Design. New York: W.W.Norton & Company Inc,. This book, as well Making Places for People, are included in the required reading for ARCH 440

THE LIVE PROJECT MANIFESTO

The first point in the manifesto prompts interrogation of proposed designs in two ways; how does the proposal meet the needs of the situation being addressed and how does this proposal provide a learning opportunity. Without students and stakeholders working cocreatively toward the designed solution, there is no way to fully satisfy this principle. Realizing “successful failure” is not an oxymoron is not only an important design lesson its an important life lesson and valuable no matter where your career takes you. It could be said this is the underlying theme of this guide, in that, I am collecting all of this together for future students to benefit from my “failure” thus making it “successful.” (No pressure!) Learning simply requires trying something new and generally messing it up first. Did you know that NASA refers to the Apollo 13 mission as a “successful failure?” Yeah, the one where explosions brought three astronauts hurling back towards earth navigating only by the position of the sun? As it breached the atmosphere, you could have literally said it was coming down in flames. All three astronauts surviving and NASA gleaning lessons that still drive mission assurances and safety protocols to this day was the success. 9

Respond to the pressing need Reward successful failure Measure social impact Redefine what is valuable Reward the missing skills Engender criticality, complexity, conflict

10. Harriss, H., & Widder, L. (2014). Architecture Live Projects. Routledge.

9. NASA. (n.d.). Apollo 13: The Successful Failure. Retrieved November 24, 2021, from https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/history/apollo/apoll o13/index.html

DESIGN JUSTICE NETWORK PRINCIPLES These principles were born of a diverse community of design practitioners working in community-based organizations and social movements all over the world who gathered in 2015 at a workshop to "challenge designers to think about how good intentions are not necessarily enough to ensure that design processes and practices became tools for liberation, and to develop principles that might help design practitioners avoid the (often unwitting) reproduction of existing inequalities." Today, these principles are becoming widely adopted and you can learn more about who they are ad what they are up to at the website. They also work with And Also Too design studio to further develop design justice practices.11

We use design to sustain, heal, and empower our communities, as well as to seek liberation from exploitative and oppressive systems

We center the voices of those who are directly impacted by the outcomes of the design process

We prioritize design’s impact on the community over the intention of the designer

We view change as the emergent from an accountable, accessible, and collaborative process, rather than as a point at the end of a process

We see the role of the designer as a facilitator rather than an expert

We believe that everyone is an expert based on their own lived experience and that we all have unique and brilliant contributions to bring to a design process

We share design knowledge and tools with our communities

We work towards community-led and controlled outcomes

We work towards non-exploitative solutions that reconnects us to the earth and to each other

Before seeking new design solutions, we look for what is already working at the community level. We honor and uplift traditional, indigenous, and local knowledge and practices

11. Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design-Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

INNOVATION With the technology and creativity, we have in the architecture program there is no shortage of inspiration to innovate, however there is something about innovation I would like to bring attention to make sure that future FBD design innovation continues to be in alignment with community-centered principles. I would like to bring up an example of how innovative design doesn’t serve users needs, well, not all users. In our society of institutionalized inequality and inequity we must be twice as confident that our design solutions meet the needs of all users including those marginalized or made invisible by the status quo. In the case of motion activated plumbing fixtures, some people are literally rendered invisible by the design flaw of improper calibration of infrared-dependent faucets unable to handle how light tends to be absorbed by 12Issues like this manifest in the design world for several darker toned skin rather than reflected. reasons, but FBD can take steps to ensure that its designs are inclusive through principle-based design, diversity among its team members, and relying on participatory design practices

Innovative Inequity

12. Gronneberg, B. (2020, July 14). “What Does Tech Have To Do with It?”: Everything. The Case For Diversity of Thoughts. Fargo INC! Magazine. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.fargoinc.com/what-does-tech-have-to-do-with-it-everything-the-case-fordiversity-of-thoughts/

FURTHER READING Check out these resources for more context on Step 4. No. 08 — Inquiry by Design Zeisel, J. (2006). Inquiry by Design. New York: W.W.Norton & Company Inc,. This book, as well Making Places for People, are included in the required reading for ARCH 440

No. 09 — The Successful Failure NASA. (n.d.). Apollo 13: The Successful Failure. Retrieved November 24, 2021, from https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/history/apollo/ap ollo13/index.html

No. 10 — Making Places for People Christie Johnson Coffin, J. Y. (2017). Making Places for People. New York: Routledge.

No. 11 — Architecture LIVE Projects Harriss, H., & Widder, L. (2014). Architecture LIVE Projects. Routledge.

No. 12 — The Case for Diversity of

Thoughts Gronneberg, B. (2020, July 14). “What Does Tech Have To Do with It?”: Everything. The Case For Diversity of Thoughts. Fargo INC! Magazine. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.fargoinc.com/what-does-techhave-to-do-with-it-everything-the-case-for-diversity-ofthoughts/, H., & Widder, L. (2014). Architecture LIVE Projects. Routledge.

STEP 5 The Building Part This is the step where we talk about building stuff, which I personally find very fun, but it can be a little scary. For some, trepidation comes with the power tools or the potential of injury. There are two parts that can put a knot in my stomach; 1) acknowledging the impacts and responsibilities inherent with having designed and built something that costs more money than this cash-strapped grad student would be comfortable with owing someone. 2) Being absolutely, completely, positively and without a doubt sure no one will get hurt using this design product. This step has the potential to release a wild pack of ‘what ifs’ all over any student architect's sweetest design dreams. Don’t worry though, it will be okay. This is why it’s important to have mentors and consultants on the FBD team and one of the crucial reasons why I am putting together this guide. You will briefly cover the design-build service in ARCH 417 the Context of the Architectural Profession course, but as a member of FBD you can gain a lot more practical knowledge of this honestly direct way of bringing design solutions to your community. So, grab that impact driver, and let's change the world. No, that's a drill, not an impact driver. Yes, there is a difference.

Image Credit: Amicia Nametka

WHAT IS A DESIGN-BUILD?

To put it in the simplest of terms, architects deliver built projects for their clients and there are several different ways they can do that. The architect-led design-build service is an alternative to more traditional methods.13 The big distinction is this; traditionally, every individual party in the network of parties involved in delivering a building deal with the owner individually: designers, subcontractors, engineers, you get the idea. Not so with design-builds, in these cases, one team works together to do it all.14That’s why sometimes you might also come across contractor-led design-build projects as well. For FBD this is the best model as it suits the sort of clients we generally would like to work with. Consider the following client characteristics when deciding if someone in the community is a good fit for your FBD team. 15

Consider the following client characteristics when deciding if someone in the community is a good fit for your FBD team. The client or owner is looking for a low-risk project They would like to have the architect on-site and directly involved in the build They are looking for a quicker project close date Ideally, having more direct involvement will save them money Often pay comes in a fixed lump sum which works particularly well when it's a community service project and your funding is a fixed amount.

13. Taken from the AIAs webpage 4.2.2021;https://www.aia.org/articles/6711-simpler-and-less-risky:46, and 4/4/21 from DBIA https://dbia.org/what-is-design-build/ 14. Demkin, Joeseph A. (2002) The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice, Editor, 13 ed. American Institute of Architects. John Wiley & Sons, Canada. 15. Blyth, A. W. (2010). Managing the Brief for a Better Design. New York: Routledge.

WHY DESIGN-BUILDS ARE SO SPECIAL UW BASIC is a University of Washington Building Sustainable Communities Initiative. This collaborative effort by the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at UW (CAUP) focuses on marginalized communities and uses a learning model of workshops and demonstrations building an exchange between students and community. These students engaged with communities where physical resources are difficult to procure and thus, they must seek alternatives. This sort of work is difficult of course, but the potential to understand what, quite frankly, are increasingly valuable lessons as we look towards a climatologically unpredictable future of resource scarcity of generations to come, building in these conditions can explore what 16Managing limited resources rarely if ever innovations might improve construction in the future. is involved in a studio project. As is described in the accounts of UW BASIC's work, often these efforts also provide opportunities for students not only to approach issues of design, execution, materials, and physics but building awareness of ‘the self’ and ‘the other’ are also hosted by these interactions. These concepts are integral to improving the equity and inclusivity of built environments. I have personally seen this process taking place in our UO AIAS FBD chapter during our The City is a House project (see the case study included after Step 6.) While working at our site in downtown Eugene, Oregon, students had rare opportunities to observe, ask questions, and interact with people who frequent the area for free food or temporary shelter. This sort of opportunity is blatantly distinct from the academic cloisters of the sheltered studio. The pedagogical benefits of design-build work and community-based participatory design techniques provide learning opportunities unobtainable by traditional coursework. The tension between the academic architect and the practicing architect is a force recent graduates must bear. From the former, they learn to push the boundaries of current thought, while the latter hiring practitioner struggles with the lack of common-sense and skills with which the typical recent graduate is equipped, according to Dana Cuff’s Architecture: The Story of Practice. The YouthBuild Program is a case study chronicling students of the School of Architecture at Southern Center in Cairo, Illinois. Three social factors are at play in the program’s structure; Economic, Interactive, and Political. Economically; there is a benefit of working within grant structures and with non-profits that exposes students to the realities of budgets, lead times, and human resources. Interactively; important learning experiences of interpersonal communication, cultural awareness and sensitivity, reflective learning, and collaborative teaching. Politically; design-build projects are a more in-depth and practical pedagogical opportunity for students to confront the codes and ordinances, regulatory agencies, and the design approval process. 17

16. Palleroni, S. (2004). Studio at Large. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 17. Schwartz, C. M. (2014). Building A Social Framework: Utilizing Design/Build to Provide Social Learning Experiences for Architecture Students. Architectural Theory Review, Vol. 19, No. 1, 76–91.

Image Credit: The Rural 10 Studio SamuelMockbee.net

My favorite example of the incomparable experiences possible via the educational experiences of a design-build studio come from the Samuel Mockbee Rural Studio case. The is incredible bittersweetness too the story as Professor Mockbee sadly passes at far too young an age. The impact on his students, the people they served, and the unusually humanistic definitions of space that resulted remain uncommon lessons in how to be a citizen architect. In this era of pandemic, climate crisis, and an American dream increasingly revealing its cheap plating and internal rot, practitioners and academic architects alike are reacting to, “Our lexicon for change [having] been edited to include abrupt change on a massive scale…” and, heeding “[a] call to check in with our fellow citizens. I finish this essay while in route to Biloxi to spend my Spring Break volunteering,” wrote Robert R. Bell Jr, who taught in the Deportment of Architecture & Interior Design and the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio after Hurricane Katrina.18 Increasingly, the industry is responding to current events with headlines like, “Architects as Provocateurs: As social and environmental issues become more dire, architects must widen their 19” Variations and alternatives to the design build format are being developed and field of focus. students are rising to the occasion, “effectively inserting themselves into an ongoing dialog where they are responsible not only for responding to the client's immediate needs and particular culture, but also to the context of previous projects and with an expectation of projects to come after theirs.20‘Insurgent architecture’ typified by its ‘direct action focus’ serves to foment within my mind the belief that right now is the moment to serve both education and our communities by empowering young architecture students to forsake the safety of the studio desk and answer Professor Bell’s call to “check in on our fellow humans.” While it seems easy enough to safe well who better than us, AIAS UO FBD, and if not now when, I must confess I laughed raucously after reading the AIAS FBD’s manual classifications of how to identify different levels of projects, their highest being completable within 10 days with 4-6 workers. Bah! My first project managed here was the City is a House and which took ever so much more time and money than that. I am quite confident that with the groundwork I have been laying out here in this guide and the proper support from the university and AIAS UO’s FBD can make a significant difference.

18. Bell Jr., R. R. (1984). Citizen Architect: An Educator's Response to Crisis. Journal of Architectural Education. 19. Flynn, K. (2021, August 03). Architects as Provocateurs: As social and environmental issues become more dire, architects must widen their field of focus. Architect, p. NA. 20. Corser, R. G. (2009). Insurgent Architecture: An Alternative Approach to Design-Build. Journal of Architectural Education, 32-39.

FURTHER READING Check out these resources for more context on Step 5.

No. 13 — AIAS and DBIA 5. Taken from the AIAs webpage 4.2.2021;https://www.aia.org/articles/6711-simpler-andless-risky:46, and 4/4/21 from DBIA https://dbia.org/whatis-design-build/

No. 14 — AIA Handbook of

Professional Practice Demkin, Joeseph A. (2002) The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice, Editor, 13 ed. American Institute of Architects. John Wiley & Sons, Canada.

No. 15 — Managing the Brief for a

Better Design

No. 17 — Architectural Theory

Review Schwartz, C. M. (2014). Building A Social Framework: Utilizing Design/Build to Provide Social Learning 10. Experiences for Architecture Students. Architectural Theory Review, Vol. 19, No. 1, 76–91.

No. 18 — JAE Journal of

Architectural Education Bell Jr., R. R. (1984). Citizen Architect: An Educator's Response to Crisis. Journal of Architectural Education.

No. 19 — Architect Magazine

7. Blyth, A. W. (2010). Managing the Brief for a Better Design. New York: Routledge.

Flynn, K. (2021, August 03). Architects as Provocateurs: As social and environmental issues become more dire, architects must widen their field of focus. Architect, p. NA.

No. 16 — Studio at Large

No. 20 — JAE Journal of

Palleroni, S. (2004). Studio at Large. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Architectural Education Corser, R. G. (2009). Insurgent Architecture: An Alternative Approach to Design-Build. Journal of Architectural Education, 32-39.

STEP 6 The Rewarding Part Documentation is an important part of any design process, in order to share the ideas of what you learned so the ideas can grow and develop as other designing minds explore what you tried. It’s inspiring to look at other people’s work and informs your own work. Also, let’s be real, it feels good to get credit for what you’ve achieved. In-school design build projects not only create amazing memories, but it is game-changing content for your resume and portfolio. You want a sweet architecture job, right? A great project to show in your portfolio is one where you tackle real-world problems, physical realities, and work with a diversity of real people. FBD is the part of AIAS that can provide the opportunities to have these experiences and promote the amazing capacities of a UO architecture graduate. Not all architects become licensed, and there are a lot of careers in architecture that do not require licensure. However, for those that do there are specific steps that have to be taken in order to earn that license. The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) is the organization that you need to engage with in order to get licensed and their Architectural Experience Program (AXP) Program is the way to document that experience. FBD can help you earn AXP hours and get you on the path to licensure!

Photo credit: AIAS FBD The City is a House

LICENSURE Architecture staff continue to account for the majority of architecture firm employees (Averages across all architecture firms, weighted by number of positions)

22. Image by AIA, 2020 Firm Survey Report

Requiring a license to practice is how architecture is regulated. The reason the profession is regulated, just so it’s said, is because if any person regardless of education, training, or technical skill where to come up with an idea for a building could do so, they could kill people. The AIA handbook puts it a bit differently, “Although the licensing laws applying to the practice of architecture may at first appear to be both broad and complex, they exist principally to provide for the health, safety, and welfare of the public.” Working in the architecture industry does not require that every person working on a project be licensed. However, if you want to “use the title of ‘architect’ in any form” you must be licensed in the jurisdiction(s) where you practice. Licensure makes it possible to make sure that those practicing architecture can be trusted by the people who hire them, to have a required of standard education, their knowledge verified through examination, and documenting a minimum of experience necessary to safely design buildings. There are a lot of other positions in a firm or studio that may have gone through the same training and have the same experience, but don’t need to be licensed.21 21. The American Institute of Architects. (2014). The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 22. American Institute of Architects. (2020, November). The Business of Architecture: 2020 Firm Survey Report. https://content.aia.org/sites/default/files/2020-11/2020_Firm_Survey_Report.pdf

The reality of what your career can look like after completing an architecture degree may not take the shape of being a licensed architect, and let me be very clear here, that is also a completely rewarding and valid choice and not at all a failure. Many who complete an accredited architecture program never get licensed but still work on designing the built environment but maybe as an acoustics consultant, lighting designer, or construction manager or many other allied professions.

FBD’s Role in The Path to Licensure Part of the path to getting licensed, if that is the path you would like to take, is getting that experience and the program for doing so is the AXP Program run by NCARB. Around the country about 28 other AIAS FBD clubs are certified to provide this sort of experience by NCARB. 23 Currently, because of its very recent rebirth in our AIAS chapter, FBD is not on the roster yet, but we are currently pursuing this. Once certified with NCARB as a qualified Community-Based Design Center/Collaborative experience setting, students will be able to earn up to 320 hours of AXP credit Most students in the UO program learn about the path to licensure in ARCH 417 Context of the Architectural Profession if not there, it will have come from their own research into the profession. Licensure is a costly and time-consuming process and the statistics point to better examination performance and faster completion of licensure requirements if they begin this process while in school. UO AIAS and FBD already serve the UO architecture student community with many events and resources to support their path to the profession every year and adding this capacity only adds to the ways our chapter can continue to do this.

AIAS FBD clubs are already certified up to CBDC/Collaborative experience settings

320

hrs

of AXP can be earned in this type of NCARB qualified setting

6 Experience Areas

3,740 HOURS

Practice Management Project Management Programming & Analysis Project Planning & Design Project Development & Documentation Construction & Evalutaiton

23. National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. (2021, December 14). CBDCenter/Collaborative List. NCARB - National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.ncarb.org/gain-axpexperience/experience-requirements/setting-o/cbdc/list

PORTFOLIO When it comes to getting that awesome architecture job, one of the main weapons in your arsenal is the portfolio. There is a lot of great guidance out there on how to cultivate and curate the right portfolio for each job that you are looking to secure. For example, if you want to work in luxury multi-family residential, or hospitality you want to make sure your portfolio represents that sort of skill. Regardless of the sector you want to practice architecture in there is a need to convey your ability to do a variety of things and most of all, handle real-world situations. “In the United States, there is a long-standing perception that the graduates of most accredited schools of architecture are poorly prepared to be fully-functional employees in an active architectural firm.”24In order to really sell that you are ready to take on work in the industry, there is no better way to then to present examples of what you have already done with real clients, real problems, with real constraints. FBD is the UO students best opportunity to get that sort of project in hand, so they can walk into that interview with the confidence of not only knowing what they want to do, but documentation of what they have already done.

Image by Architect-US.com .24. Schwartz, C. M. (2014). Building A Social Framework: Utilizing Design/Build to Provide Social Learning Experiences for Architecture Students. Architectural Theory Review, Vol. 19, No. 1, 76–91.

FURTHER READING Check out these resources for more context on Step 6. No. 21 — AIA - The Architect's

Handbook of Professional Practice The American Institute of Architects. (2014). The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

No. 22 — AIA 2020 Firm Survey

Report American Institute of Architects. (2020, November). The Business of Architecture: 2020 Firm Survey Report. https://content.aia.org/sites/default/files/202011/2020_Firm_Survey_Report.pdf

No. 23 — NCARB National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. (2021, December 14). CBDCenter/Collaborative List. NCARB - National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.ncarb.org/gain-axp-experience/experiencerequirements/setting-o/cbdc/list

No. 24 — Architectural Theory

Review Schwartz, C. M. (2014). Building A Social Framework: Utilizing Design/Build to Provide Social Learning Experiences for Architecture Students. Architectural Theory Review, Vol. 19, No. 1, 76–91.

CASE STUDIES Completed The City is a House

On The Boards Communikitchen

Your NFP Name SDG Progress Report 2020

THE CITY IS A HOUSE Originally conceived in a studio project investigation into alternative solutions to low-income housing for people experiencing houselessness in Eugene, the City is a House project developed into a partnership with Food For Lane County to elevate the parking lot where diners waited to be served meals at the Dining Room. Freedom by Design members developed ideas for mobile shade structures, playfully known as "hoppers," several styles of planters and benches, and designed the site to include a new mural on the wall, plans for one on the asphalt, and an overall reorganization of site elements. Based on working with the community for the community, our members interviewed Dining Room guests, FFLC volunteers and employees, and other locals to determine an approach to the design that felt right for the area, was inclusive, welcoming, and uplifting.

Project Stats:

11 months

2 Mentor/Consultants 15 Team Members Many Volunteers

$5, 450 Spent

Project Principles Cleaning As Care Labor Design From Distance Detailing As Caring The Right to Colors Fabrication During COVID Photo credit: UO AIAS FBD

Softening Landscaping

COMMUNIKITCHEN

In cooperation with the Providence Portland BOB Program (Better Outcomes Through Bridges) and the Parkrose Community United Church of Christ (PCUCC) also in Portland, we have been building relationships in order to design shelter solutions for guests of the church who are experiencing houselessness. Through site visits, site research, interviews, and a design charrette, we have been able to find a need that we can address through a design build solution. Fall of 2021, shelters have been purchased to elevate the quality of life for the three guests currently camping there and next year we will be working on a design for an outdoor kitchen, gathering, and storage space to support community building among the campers.

Proposed Program: Cooking/washing up Lockable Storage, especially bikes Gathering space Cover from elements Pleasant appearance Refuse/recycling storage

Proposed Timeline: Winter Term 2022: Project Launch Spring Term 2022: Prototyping Summer Term 2022: Approval Fall Term 2022: Build Launch

Your NFP Name SDG Progress Report 2020