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Show DEPARTMENT OFARCHITECTUR A The Pover of Sfeel and Sone and Skyfree Geometries By Sylvia Kronstadt phofos by Brian Record ARCHITECTURE: A DYNAMIC SPACE-TIME RELATIONSHIP On the old white barracks dooi of Bldg. 416 there is a quotation from J. B. Priestly. Penned in the polished, precise printing typical of an architect, or an architect-to-be, it reads: "Never build a wall until you know what you're walling in and what you're walling out." Inside, up a flight of musty stairs, seriously devoted, creative ' - work is mixed with a good deal of impish hell-raising. Amid reams of colored tissue on which sudden inspirations have been dashed off, one student concocts "the most versatile room in the world." Another, surrounded by paper flowers and a yield sign, designs a structure on a canyon site "which will appear to grow right out of the mountain." "Our design class is having a contest," somebody cracks. "The loser gets a 35-year scholarship to the Utah college of his choice." Tacked to the wall is a mimeographed memo from a faculty member regarding the "intolerable" collection of junk and litter in the studio. "Out goes my legless couch," one student moans. Likewise the orange and turquoise pipe salvaged from a nearby junkyard and a rusty, "artistically superb" pulley. "After all," the memo reads, "we are supposedly concerned primarily with environment." The social ramifications of environment are indeed a major emphasis of the curriculum for 80 University architecture students. Paradoxically, the department is in "the world's most wretched condition," said Prof. Donald J. Bergsma. Presently scattered among Bldgs. 405, 411, and 416, the department will occupy one-half of the new fine arts building when it is completed in February, 1970. The three-floor facility will include drafting spaces, lecture halls, exhibition areas and design studios, plus research and photographic labs. The new building will terminate over 20 years in which the department's "environment" has changed very little. When classes were organized in 1948 by Prof. Roger Bailey, 44 students assembled in the bare basement of the Park Bldg. The next fall, 100 enrollees worked in an old mess hall, "a great big barn sort of a place." "We were free and that was very wonderful," Prof. Bailey recalls. An exciting curriculum was compiled into a five-year Bachelors of Architecture offering. The curriculum changed gradually over the years and finally, in 1967, the B. Arch degree was replaced by a six-year careful," says Prof. Bergsma. "We guard them, watch them, continually prod them" It is this closeness and concern that spark interaction between students and faculty. Even at the very beginning there was a "wonderful excitement" between students and professors, says Prof. Bailey. "We lived tightly, together," he recalls. Prof. Tom Kass describes the relationship as "not a static thing, but a constant, reciprocal explosion." Immediate rapport is necessary, according to Prof. Stanley Crawley. Since the teacher load is low, there is time for personal contact. "We're sitting down on a stool next to our students every afternoon, sometimes for hours," he says. It is a challenging relationship for faculty as well as students, says Prof. Bergsma. "Young people in architecture today are not only more excited, but more exciting than at any time in the past," he comments. "When I was in school we just performed. These kids ask questions and demand answers. I think that their idealism has led us to changes of great value." Idealism is no handicap to the student of architecture, Prof. Bergsma claims. "Even the most idealistic student soon realizes that he needs the tedious complexities and tools of the profession in order to actualize his ideas." So classes include aspects of building codes and fire and zoning ordinances plus the complicated structural facet. Freedom and Discipline "Students take my structures classes and dislike them immensely," says Prof. Crawley. But knowledge of materials, strengths and points of stress are vital to the creative part of architecture, answering the question "Can it be done?" "Students initially resent being tied down to this discipline," notes Prof. Crawley, "but they find that once they have mastered it, they are free of it." As if in exasperation, a sign above one student's desk, cluttered with computations, analyses and threshold figures, reads: "It will ultimately depend upon the strength of the wood." Each year Prof. Cra; structures classes work on a structural problem. Last year constructed a geodesic di which covers a large area wit little weight and material possible. This spring they pit build a three-dimensional "s; frame." The other emphasis of architecture curriculum, de: attempts to counter the ve orientation of education. Rubber Duckies Design When most students start o design they are at the "n duckies" stage, according to : Kass, "the Sears and Roe: kind of thing." Prof, attempts to get his students: from this habitual way of vie the world because "habits encroach on the growti people." His students i suprised if he asks them l under their desks for a new so awareness. The student as a persona: development as a personalis vital to his ability to es himself. So architectural classes question how people in and relate to their environ: how they view the world and potentials they hold in their "Life is a synerj experience," Prof. Kass ' "You cannot divorce one i from any other, and you cat education into neat, separate boxes." Prof. Kass integrates diverse elements as lites computer technology, philos and mechanical engineer his design lectures. "It's a & wholistic approach," he . "The goal is a meaningful together." A Fusion of Contraries This 'tying together" ofs opposites is one of the ft challenges to the arc According to Prof. Stanley? architecture is the co meshing of the metaphys. biological requirements o "We have to combine his be exalted with his need ''! the bathroom." Student r Yamada finds that the difficult aspect is technology and thmj i Masters of Architecture. No new students have been admitted to the five-year program since the end of the 1966-67 academic year. The six-year program requires that a student earn a B.A. or B.S. in a major area of his choice. Majors have varied from art to engineering. This, along with extensive pre-architecture requirements, is completed in the first four years. The final two years are devoted entirely to architecture. Graduates of the department must serve a three-year apprenticeship and then take board examinations before becoming practicing architects. Training vs. Education "The old program produced students who were well-trained, but not truly well-educated," explains Prof. Bergsma. "They had little time for anything except architecture." Even now, students put in enervatingly long working hours, but they seem never to tire of the subject. "You have to spend so much time up here that if you don't just love it, you might as well quit," remarks student Claire Reese, one of four girls in the department. Ed Kinsey agrees: "Eventually you get used to the pressure and the long hours. You learn to discipline yourself. And architecture becomes your life-style." Duncan Moyes adds you learn quickly not to draw more in the morning than you can erase in the afternoon. Students take their regular classes early in the morning. Architectural design classes last until 5:30 p.m. "Then we're here until anywhere from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. working on our projects," a student explains. "And that's not just a few eggheads - that's all of us." This "whole hog" devotion is a major requirement of the department. It has been typical to take in 60 students and graduate only 15, according to Prof, and department chairman, Robert Bliss. Claire Reese explains: "We were told at the beginning that they wouldn't graduate an average student. You don't forget that kinr) of challenge." ' With l.hc students we are very i 1 n i :U ... -V V" "' T' t f V r " ) My Rare Specimens: Sandy Keiger and Claire Reese, two of four female arcnitfrciuie majors, work on ghetto camps. Prof. Hallet started a film-making class last year, contending that many problems of the visual communications media are architectural. Eighteen architecture students are involved, and are "just now beginning to comprehend the total connection of the two disciplines." The problems of simulating environments, and delving into environmental questions of signs, litter, ghettoes and traffic all heighten visual perception, according to Prof. Hallet. In the past, social involvement of the department has also been notable. Several years ago students prepared a study of Park City to examine its potential as a resort. This was presented to the leaders of the area. The department studied the idea of a University research park and developed a modular structural system for the project. Students have redesigned the Zuni Pueblo Indian community and anticipate future work with Navahqs and Utes. The department is also assisting the Junior League and Heritage Foundation in taking an inventory of the old buildings and homes in the city, hoping to help preserve them. "When our projects are submitted to groups as a stimulus to improvement, they often have a good deal of public impact," Prof. Bliss remarks. To have an impact on the public is a fundamental goal of architecture. And the architect is affected by his consciousness of public needs. "You begin to sense more and more that beauty is not just structure, nor is it simply design," one student explains. "Beauty is a building that is full of people and being used." thetics with function." fusion represents a pnmary i anal of architecture. "You mrf VwSs remember that Mtecture isn't gimmick, like 'automobile style game of w sting chrome one way one year T one way the next," explains I? miss "You must say this can retrtechnically, but should it be done? Is it architecture or is it iust something you can do? 1 Prof John Giustl ag ' fining architectural morality as eaUng each problem individually. "Preconceptions are dangerous because the solution is Turned before the problem has f been defined," he says. Morality involves the whole aesthetic problem of appropriateness, according to Prof Bergsma. "Architecture is not a matter of whim." he states. "It's logic, judgement, taste, discipline - it's intellectual problem solving." A Universal Approach Teaching an approach to problem solving that is universal and timeless rather than solving individual problems is a safeguard against outdated education. "To design a letter opener, a doorknob, or a church -the approach to the problem is the same," Prof. Bergsma says. The approach of architecture curriculums is generally tending toward socio-physical problems and toward showing how people's pattern of living can be enhanced by their environment. By training students to think in terms of things as they could be, primary emphasis is directed toward the social obligations and potentials of architecture. "I believe that for the next 20 years, environment will be society's biggest concern," predicts Prof. Bergsma. "And physical environment is the responsibility of the architect." Prof. Hallet also emphasizes the sociological aspects of architecture. "Nearly every personal contact people have today is by appointment. We choose who we wish to see, when and where. Even seeing your mother after you've grown up you have to make an appointment," Prof. Hallet illustrates. "The architect must ask himself: Is selection the best way to grow? Should people be thrown together or isolated? And the structures he designs must reflect his decision." Students agree. "The more I'm in this department, the more I realize that architecture is the means to making people happy or miserable," comments John Moyes. Reverence for People This increased awareness of architecture's social relevance is evident in the department's projects. Two-thirds of Prof. Bergsma's third year class is designing an "experience center" for underprivileged children. "The purpose of the structure is to give these children experiences that we take for granted, but they never get," explains Prof. Bergsma. Student Baird Smith plans to include facilities for legal aid and welfare services plus recreation "in a building where people feel like people and not like 'the poor'." In the other third of the third year class, each student is designing a camp for ghetto children. They have selected an actual site in the canyon and have visited the area several times, going on survival hikes and sleeping out. "The object is to truly feel and understand the site," explains Prof. Bergsma. "We want to know it in sunlight, in darkness, in storm." In Prof. Gustaf Brest Van Kampen's class, each student must design a structure for the soul, the mind or the body. "Not just buildings, but settings for someone to do something in," a student explains. Prof. Giusti's fifth year class is renting a duplex in Central City. Students take turns living there, getting the feel of the neighborhood. Sometimes they just "sit on the porch and look." Often they attempt communication. They spent a day in a Central City elementary school trying to determine childrens reactions to their environment. Their class projects are attempts to revitalize the area, combining a sense of community with privacy and individuality. The Central City project provides a transition from school to the world, as well as involving the University in social activity, Prof. Giusti says. i r ' -. v A I ' ; V? Prof. Stanley Hallet and student Bob Walker in 4th year design studio, which sports bright walls and assorted psychedelia. |