Student Works BLOCK COURSE REVIEW Professional Practice 101

by Stephen Barnecut

Fifteen first and second year architecture students had a unique opportunity this past month. A group of practicing architects in Edmonton volunteered their time and effort to teach a block course to Calgary students. The Innovative Practice Group in Architecture was a survey course of professional practice focusing on site inspections and proposal calls. In addition to attending lectures and workshops, we produced a site inspection report and took part in a role-playing exercise. The latter allowed us to play the part of the professionals and user groups involved in a proposal call. Five students acted as the selection committee, while five groups of two students took the roles of competing architecture firms all vying for a large renovation project. The selection committee interviewed each firm and evaluated them based on their philosophy, methods, performance, and apparent competence to execute the job. Meanwhile, the real architects looked on... Those of us who took part would like to thank the participating architects, both for taking the time out of their schedules and for bringing the two cities of Edmonton and Calgary together. We understand that not having an architecture school in Edmonton puts particular strain on that architectural community, and we welcome taking part in an intercity effort at making the architecture programme at the University of Calgary a school of architecture for all of Alberta. Thanks go to Barry Johns, Vivian Manasc, David Murray, Brian Oakley, Len Rodrigues, James Dykes, Brian Allsopp, and to the many others who helped make this course happen. Special thanks go to Ted Cavanagh, professor at the Technical University of Nova Scotia, for coordinating the course, and for visiting our faculty the following week.

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