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Design Build Studio

By University of Miami

June 6^th, 2023

Students enrolled in the Design Build Studio course offered by the School of Architecture, under the leadership of Professor Rocco Ceo and lecturer James Adamson, spent the spring semester in their outdoor studio, building an outdoor classroom for the Ocean Study Charter School in Key Largo.

The charter school school asked the design build class to create a modular classroom for outside use. The University students interviewed the clients, which included the charter school’s students and faculty and staff members, to learn about their needs and preferences.

The octagonal structure, built by the architecture students, now sits in a protected hardwood hammock near the Key Largo school. It is fashioned out of Western redcedar, a wood that is resistant to the elements and does not rot. One of the challenges of the project, according to Ceo, is that it had to be modular so that once constructed, the students could take it apart and reassemble it on site.

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Most of the architecture students had not used power tools before but were excited to tackle the project. The gazebo-like structure has an open oculus on top to let in light and air and one at the bottom that connects it to the earth, reported Ceo. The classroom was built as a octagonal structure to mimic the environment that will surround it, he pointed out.

Hannah Artman, a fourth-year student, said it was “so satisfying to meet the young students who would be using the outdoor classroom.”

She also noted that she learned new skills while immersing herself in the studio.

“We architect students do not often get the chance to work from a small scale and then fully build a structure,” she explained. “This really opened my eyes, and I realized that this is how working in a firm would feel like. It made me more passionate about architecture.”

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

For Kailyn Wee, building the classroom taught her to have patience.

“I learned patience and flexibility, as we often came across issues that we had to fix on the fly, such as the designs for the infill patterns,” Wee said. “Due to this, we sometimes had to repeat the process of redesigning certain aspects and had to learn to work with the constraints we had in terms of both time and code restrictions,” she added.

“When constructing the actual structure, I had to learn patience in terms of the working materials and the tools,” Wee continued. “As this structure in particular was very precise in terms of how the pieces slotted together. Thus, we had to go slow when building, because one wrong move could lead to a possible setback or even redo of the piece or part.”

The students' project was awarded the Best Upper Level Studio Award by the faculty at the School of Architecture.

Ceo and Adamson founded the Design/Build Program in 2009 and have been co-directing and co-teaching the classes.

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Design Build Studio

Footnotes

Design and photos by Joshua Prezant/University of Miami . Text by Barbara Gutierrez. Additional photos and video courtesy of Ocean Studies Charter School and University of Miami's School of Architecture.

FootNotes

Design and photos by Joshua Prezant/University of Miami . Text by Barbara Gutierrez. Additional photos and video courtesy of Ocean Studies Charter School and University of Miami's School of Architecture.

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