ISSUE 1 • FALL 2023
Critical Practice:
Learning Experience and Rite of Passage
A charrette is a process of collaborative planning which brings together disparate talents bound by a common purpose. Meeting in small sub-groups, participants of varying backgrounds share insight, imagination, and ingenuity, then reconvene in a larger session to develop and implement a working strategy together.
Etymologically speaking, the word goes back to 19th century Paris and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Working en charrette (“in the cart”) was an allusion to design students who would attempt, at the very last minute, to complete work even as their assignments were being carted away. The term still evokes the devotion and determination—perhaps even the desperation—that creative people may feel when engaged in a time-sensitive group task.
“Marked by the intensity it inspires and the camaraderie it promotes, this dynamic approach is, for many learning communities, not just a profound experience and academic requirement, but a rite of passage.”
Marked by the intensity it inspires and the camaraderie it promotes, this dynamic approach is, for many learning communities, not just a profound experience and academic requirement, but a rite of passage. Master of Architecture students of the CoAD experience this methodology through the Critical Practice Studio course.
The set-up is as follows: an industry sponsor, three instructors, one challenging design task, a group of sixty to seventy students, all brought together for ten weeks—nine virtual weeks of planning and one in-person week of building.
It is the “make or break” experience of that final week that truly defines the unique quality of Critical Practice, compelling the creative conjuring of that practical alchemy by which ideas and effort become accomplishment.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2023 Critical Practice installation on Lawrence Technological University campus.
“It is structured in a way that we push students.” explains Masataka Yoshikawa, Assistant Professor of Architecture. “Nine weeks designing, meeting twice a week through Zoom. The last week is build week. Everyone comes to campus to build what they design.”
Those nine weeks are comprehensive, incorporating all the salient details and demands of design work, from project management to budget estimation. The instructors have set the goal and established the materials to be used. Students begin the class separated into smaller sub-groups, but with each separate assignment the groups get larger until finally, there is just one group.
“In the beginning there is always a gap between what you’re designing and what you actually build. This course is designed to bridge that gap.”
Masataka Yoshikawa
Assistant Professor of Architecture
Yoshikawa describes this year as bigger and perhaps more chaotic, and because of the large number of students involved, he sees this year’s selection choice of wood—in the form of two by four timbers—as advantageous. “We wanted to use a material that allows us to work with large numbers, when there are so many people working on it.”
The students come from diverse academic backgrounds, and from different stages within the industry. Some have worked in construction, some are new to it. Some lean more to the “building side”, some more to the “design side”, but ultimately the mix of ideas, experience, and practical know-how will result in a success that no one could have quite predicted.
K Group Developers, Inc. sponsored this year’s project. The end result was a public sculpture with a decidedly practical application. With a canopy and bench, it defines a space which can be used for sitting, waiting—perhaps for an Uber—and can also be utilized to carry signage for one of the client’s recent development projects.
“There are moments on Tuesday or Thursday where we think ‘this isn’t going to work’” says Karl Daubmann, Dean of the College of Architecture and Design, and co-instructor of the course. “On Friday they bring it together.”
Daubmann brings to this process what he calls “an immense sense of urgency.” That students internalize this is evident in his description of their arrival on campus, in person, on the eve of their final week.
“They last met on Zoom on Friday night. On Saturday night students arrive and immediately they begin making design changes, and reworking digital models, making significant improvements.”
Digital model review of 2023 critical practice installation.
Yoshikawa articulates the significant benefit that students take away from this course.
“In the beginning there is always a gap between what you’re designing and what you actually build. This course is designed to bridge that gap.”
“Someone who is a designer wants to advance their design sensibilities.” He goes on. “This course is the perfect way. When they first come to the LTU site, the first few days are panic and chaotic.”
“Wait, this doesn’t really work this way,” he says, echoing the oft-heard sentiment of students who suddenly find practice catching up to theory at great speed. “These are the essential critical skills and experience that we think can only be acquired through experience. A moment where practicality is more important that what they had been taught, an ‘a-ha’ moment.”
By Joseph M. Bedard