Author(s): Christopher L. Cosper & Paul W. Wong
Although the report is now 20 years old, Ernest L.Boyer and Lee D. Mitgang鈥檚 Building Community: ANew Future for Architectural Education and Practiceis the most current major report on the state of architecturaleducation and remains a source of inspirationtoday. In Building Community, Boyer and Mitgangagree with previous Carnegie Foundation reports that鈥渉igher education as a whole has lost its direction,that it is no longer at the vital center of the nation鈥檚work.鈥1 To address this deficiency, Boyer and Mitgangproposed seven goals for architectural education andpractice, the seventh of which they termed 鈥淪erviceto the Nation.鈥 Although Boyer and Mitgang identifiedseveral examples of socially aware architectureprograms (in the 1990s), they argued that 鈥渟choolsof architecture could do more鈥o instill in studentsa commitment to lives of engagement and service.鈥2This paper revisits Boyer and Mitgang鈥檚 report, inparticular its admonition that architecture programs鈥渟hould educate students for both confidence andcaring鈥攊n service to the nation鈥3 and considers someof the critical reaction to that report. It then presentsthe work of the Small Town Studio at Ferris StateUniversity as a case study of an architectural designstudio based on a service learning design pedagogywhich has found innovative, low-cost ways to performprojects and engage students in the wider communitydespite omnipresent financial and time restraints.
Volume Editors
Luis Francisco Rico-Gutierrez & Martha Thorne
ISBN
978-1-944214-08-1