The architecture projects have been on display at Architecture and Environmental Design (building 5) since March 3.
Lauren MacLeod
Special to Mustang News
Freshman architecture and architectural engineering students will participate in ParaSITE, a project in which they must design a full-scale structure that will temporarily attach to an assigned space.
Ed Saliklis, an associate professor of architectural engineering, hopes through this project, students will learn the importance of building a structure that matches and enhances the space around it.
He said he will be looking for projects that are “subtle but surprising … It’s easy to do something enormous and surprising, just the enormity of the thing shocks you,” he said.
Beyond teaching students how to work with real materials, Saliklis wants students to understand the importance of building a structure that works with the space around it. The skills learned throughout the ParaSITE project teach the primary skills needed for future careers in architecture and design.
Angela Bracco, a lecturer for these studio classes, said this project teaches “how you might engage the user within the project itself, a means of breaking down architecture.”
Students will be using a variety of real-world materials to design their projects, including wood, steel, plastic and fabric. Bracco noted some teams have chosen to use stone, rammed-earth brick (made of raw material), or even plants that grow on the structures.
The professors are available to assist students or bring in other experts in the field.
“Angela [Bracco] is an expert welder and has run welding workshops,” Saliklis said. “We have craftsmen running drawing workshops, we have an expert on computer digital drawings and she’s run workshops.”
The project began midway through winter quarter. Students have so far presented initial plans, and once these plans are approved they will be given a permit to begin building. The projects have been on display at Architecture and Environmental Design (building 5) since March 3.
“(The professors) told us to let the space speak to us,” architectural engineering freshman Erin Dupree said. “When observing our space, we noticed that people tended to walk right by, never realizing there was a little courtyard just on the other side. We designed our ParaSITE to give people a hint at what laid behind the walls while drawing them into the space by leading them to walk under the archway and inside the courtyard.”
Saliklis said one of the most memorable projects he had seen in the past was “a sort of bench that folded out and lined up with the railings. Initially you didn’t know it was a bench, because there’s no manual that says ‘this is a bench,’ but … you could actually sit on the thing,” he said.
At the end of the project, students must dispose of their projects in a sustainable manner.
“What we’ve asked them to do is start to label things and manufacture them in a way that they can either reuse, recycle or donate to the shop to turn them back into a raw material,” Bracco said. “They could turn it into a piece of furniture.”
By completing ParaSITE this quarter, the architecture and architectural engineering students will be prepared to compete in Design Village in the spring.
“The next project is a full-scale inhabitable structure in Poly Canyon,” Saliklis said. “It will be a big competition and other schools are invited to come, too, so keep your eyes open for that.”