Everybody get your ‘Helmuts’… um Hardhats “Nature is not seen as an indifferent, inscrutable force…but rather a collection of material things whose reasons and relations architecture has the task of revealing… the origin of architecture is nature worked as a product of thought…Man put stone on the ground in order to recognize place in the […]

This was an exciting week for the group because we finally got a glimpse of what the project might be. The students were presented with the three options for this year’s project: a Theater, a Disciplines of Art Museum, and an Educational Facility. (See attachment below for the handout.) Students broke out into groups to discuss one

This week Team 3 made a visit to the ArcelorMittal Design Studio at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, sponsored by LEGO. Students and Mentors got a chance to rekindle their inner child and play with one the world’s most famous building blocks, Legos! The first activity of the night asked the group to build something out

Owners Rep… WE…working together to solve the problem…     “It is extremely important for a satisfactory result of any design to spend time on the search of the accurate and essential meanings, investigate their complexities, learn about their ambiguities, understand the context of use to better define the parameters within which we will have

Last week the ACE Team 2 students had great fun looking for inspiration to cut out of a variety of design magazines! These served as the springboard for a deeper conversation about what kind of elements would fit well on our site at 31st Street and Kedzie. In turn, we discussed the use of scale and discovered how

Team 4 continued the Site Selection and Planning discussion during week 5. The students and mentors broke into small groups to develop our project objectives as well as to brainstorm preferred uses for the site. The students were really creative and identified numerous uses, features, and concepts for our project. It was great to see

This week’s activity got us all thinking like a contractor! After dinner and a few rounds of Blokus, we were given our construction challenge. (Handout attached.) We had to build a bridge that could hold a 4″ cube with a 1 solid wall and a solid roof. The bridge had to be able to hold

Can-struction Change Order… “First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.” – Aristotle Week 3 was at Clune. We started with a presentation about project management and construction. We played

This week in ACE team 3 engaged in an activity that explored program and space planning.  Team 3 began brainstorming places such as a clinic, garden, cafeteria, gym, and a gathering space to include in their future design.   Students drew bubble diagrams to begin mapping out location and relationships of the various programmatic elements. The larger the bubble

Last week we discovered various methods by which one can analyze a site and its conditions. With introductions from both the architects, HDR and AltusWorks, and construction managers at Turner, the students learned what basic questions to ask and qualities of the site’s surrounding are most helpful during analysis. After these quick tips and some instruction