Community Arts Partner

Experience

Previous School Partnerships

I am honored to join: 2021 - ongoing University of Washington Robinson Center Community Architecture instructor of intro architectural design studio for youth considering: To advance social justice, create a prosperous and healthy global community, and take climate action, we must gain a greater awareness of our place in history and come to terms with our part in perpetuating the United States’ colonial and imperial legacy. Architectural thinking is uniquely positioned to peruse this premise and transform it into positive social outcomes.   2020 – ongoing  University of Washington 2020 Virtual Instruction Pilot Program instructor of  architectural design studios delivered virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic   2020 - ongoing University of Washington Robinson Center Saturday Enrichment instructor of A Green New Deal for Seattle considering the climate crisis as a grave threat, yet only one component of sets of problems we must face; The solutions to social injustice, towards a healthy global community, and the climate crisis begin as one and the same.   2012 – 2020 University of Washington Youth and Teen Programs instructor of introductory architectural design studio for high school-aged youth, nine consecutive years   2015, 2016 University of Washington International Programs Humans in the PNW English language instructor focused on environmental stewardship, on living cultures and ecologies of the Duwamish, physical / psychological confluence caused by colonization, and its effect on perception. Instructed 70 people of diverse age, language proficiency 2014, 2015 Seattle Architecture Foundation Teaching Artist at Washington Middle School and Asa Mercer Int’l Middle School partnering with the Seattle Creative Advantage to bring architecture classes to Seattle Public Schools

WA State TAT Lab Graduate

No

Other Trainings or Certifications

- Licensed Architect in Washington State - University of Washington International Teaching English as a Foreign Language Certification - University of Washington Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies

Sample Lesson Description: Student / Classroom Residencies

task 1.1

site

Each group is assigned a point of significance on the Henry Art Gallery Plaza.

rules

Working in groups of 5, record the conditions of your site by making sketches and diagrams. Document the surroundings and context through orthographic and perspective drawings. Annotate select elements in your drawings in order to communicate scale. As a group, use these drawings to produce one drawing-model that represents your group’s assigned site. Use thoughtful drawing and modelling language to represent the conditions you have documented.

terminology

- conditions - drawing-model - orthographic - perspective - sketches - diagrams - context - annotate - scale

“Architecture should be working on improving the environment of people in their homes, in their places of work, and their places of recreation. It should be functional and pleasant, not just in the image of the architect's ego.”

-Norma Merrick Sklarek

Sample Workshop Description: Teacher Professional Development

 

Date	Topics and Activities
Week 1- January 23	Humans are highly attuned to symmetry and this predisposition is biasing our perception of the world. We should give bilateral balance to the earth’s features and thereby see a landscape our brains crave, a landscape we can more readily relate to and value as a living entity. Using a plane seat as a studio. Collect aerial images of the earth below and then split, mirror, and book-match them. Occasionally this manipulation can magically reveal an animal, insect, and/or chimerical being. It is as if, in adding symmetry, we can access a historical and collective mythos embedded in the landscape. We may also begin to better recognize our own psychological environment, and challenge its influence of the ways we view the world.
Week 2- January 30	Verbally present your images. Share with your peers the time and place of the photographic capture. Share with your peers the details of the moment you took these photos and the moments you took to manipulate them.  Visually and spatially present your images by designing a gallery space for their display. Use plan, section, and elevation drawings to investigate the nature of your architectural proposition.
Week 3- February 6	Expand on the representation of your gallery space design. Use experiential drawings and models to explore the experience of arriving, being, and leaving your gallery space.
Week 4- February 20	Select an architectural work as a case study from the following list, a space that you see having qualities similar to your gallery space design. Investigate the case study’s order of construction and material nature. Present your observations through drawings and models. This is an exercise in interpretation and abstraction, not necessarily an exploration of literal description or historic research.
Week 5- February 27	Expand on the representation of your gallery space design. Make objects that explore the nature of three materials, and their interaction. Rock shall have significant mass in comparison to Paper and Scissors. Paper will be the literal material. Scissors will be represented with a tensile material of extreme thinness. This is an exercise in interpretation and abstraction, not literal description. Your Rock-Paper-Scissors object will tell a story and reveal an idea about a nature and order of material organization of your gallery space's construction.
Week 6- March 6	Just as you have already done in Task 1, use a plane seat as a studio. Fly to Kōbe, in Japan, and collect aerial images of the earth below and then manipulate, collage, and explore them. Reveal an idea about the city and the communities that comprise them. See Kobe as a landscape we can more readily relate to and value as a living entity. You may also begin to better recognize our own city and communities in Seattle, and challenge your preconceptions.
Week 7- March 13	Prepare a verbal presentation of your images. Share with your peers the time and place of the photographic captures and manipulations. Share with your peers the details of the moments you took these photos and the moments you took to manipulate them. This show-and-tell is a practice for tomorrow’s presentations.
Week 8- March 20	In two minutes, present your work for the course and share a brief summary of the biggest thing you learned about yourself and others.