Architecture students reach out to community

Curious children approached a large neon green structure standing in the atrium of the High Museum of Art last Sunday, pushing and pulling on the object and watching it stretch and fling back to its original shape.

The structure is called “Space Index,” and Tristan Al-Haddad, a faculty member at the College of Architecture, designed it for the High’s “Celebrate Architecture!” Family Day event.

The High came to the College of Architecture at Tech looking for volunteers to run the workshops.

The College of Architecture helped the High put on the event and many undergraduate and graduate students volunteered, running workshops designed for kids and parents to learn more about architecture.

Al-Haddad’s “Space Index” welcomed visitors to the event and he explained that not only was it “something interactive and fun for the kids” but also a demonstration of his research area, digital design and manufacturing.

“It’s focusing on methods of fabricating intelligent form embedded within the parts,” Al-Haddad said.

In one workshop architecture students worked with kids who were building models with wood pieces.

Kids had colorful model-building materials at their disposal to construct miniature museums and gallery rooms, complete with their own works of art.

“We have a lot of wood products here: popsicle sticks, dipsticks, notched popsicle sticks that they can fit together like Lincoln logs, wood blocks and these wood sticks, some colored, some not,” said Matt Lewis, a graduate student in Architecture.

One child created a “sunlit” arched ceiling using a piece of mesh.

“This gives [the kids] a chance to be exposed to different things. My son Justin likes math and architecture has a lot to do with math, and I wanted to show him the kinds of things he can do with that,” said Lisa White, a parent attending the event.

“[My favorite part is] just helping out, playing with the kids. We take for granted that it starts with kids putting things together spatially. It shows to people who don’t usually associate Tech with helping the community that we [reach] out,” said Evan Watts, an Architecture major who volunteered for the event.

In another workshop, focused on showing kids 3-D designs, children drew on a large piece of paper on the wall of the room, while volunteers from the IMAGINE lab (Interactive Media Architecture Group in Education) traced over the drawing in Rhino, a software program used for 3-D modeling.

“Kids draw shapes on the wall and he’s extruding them into three dimensions,” said Phi Tran, a third-year Architecture major and a volunteer at the workshop.

“[I] thought it was great fun with the kids getting messy,” said Joice Emory, a parent at the event whose daughter participated in the workshops.

“She is studying architecture in her target class, and it’s wonderful that this supports the curriculum,” Emory said.

Emory expressed interest in trying to get the workshops run at her daughter’s school.

Around the corner in a different room laughter could be heard as kids built bricks using plaster of Paris, and some examples of the tools that architects use were on display—including a drill bit from the Advanced Wood Products Laboratory (AWPL) at Tech, which is the only lab in the U.S. with a three-axis router.

“We can write a program in the computer lab, take stock wood, and the machine will trace out exactly what you told it to,” explained Brandon Clifford, a fifth-year Architecture student to on-lookers.

Also on display were examples of graduate studio projects.

“I know I did stuff like this when I was little. We’re using plaster of Paris to make bricks. We use it a lot and we wanted to show them how we do things,” said Jessica Wallace, an Architecture major who was a volunteer.

“I just think having parents working with kids and talking about architecture and art, and how they are seen in society, and having fun doing it,” Wallace said about the most important part of the workshop.

“We’re always happy to engage in outreach activities that help demonstrate how architecture can improve communities,” said Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the College of Architecture.

“This event at the High was particularly exciting, not only because we partnered with such a terrific institution, but because our students got to have so much fun sharing their passion for what they do with little kids and families,” she said.

The three workshops offered were called “Inside out: The Art of Architecture,” “Cool Tools and Material Demonstration” and “Designing Computer Automated Drafting Demonstration” and were held in Greene Family Education Center at the High Museum.

The “Celebrate Architecture!” Family Day accompanied the “Celebrate Architecture!” exhibit currently at the High and featured models from architect Renzo Piano.