“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” — George Bernard Shaw

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The DesignShare Blog team has greatly appreciated the diverse range of visitors, as well as the positive feedback, during our first few days of operation. Still very much a work-in-progrees, we are now beginning to see the fruits of dialogue grow.

To that end, each week we will invite all visitors to the DesignShare Blog to offer a post of their own, something to add to the on-going conversation. Here are the rules (or simply put, a few handy steps to launch you into the blog-publishing world!):

Read the rest of this entry »

Word play is a wonderful way to generate new ideas, and often its the only way to help any of us break free of the binds that keep us tied to old ways of finding solutions.

As this blog was partially created to help us re-think the very ‘language of school design’, it seems that this is certainly one for consideration. Even better, it comes from outside the industry of architecture. Perhaps the paradigm shift won’t be so difficult as we all think if more and more non-school design folks are already building the new vocabulary.

To that end, I’d like you to consider the following post called “Classrooms as Studios — Personal Doing Environments” from Jeremy Hiebert, an expert in the fusion of technology and learning and design and life: Read the rest of this entry »

Blog visitors offer feedback, questions, and challenges on Philly’s “School of the Future”, bridges between educational models, flexible space in schools and classrooms, future memories of interactive learning, and re-thinking the classroom wall. Read the rest of this entry »

An interesting view of the impact of blogging to draw together a larger community of educational facility stakeholders. This comes from David Sundersingh:

Dear Randy,

Congrats on a blog & a very newsy newsletter. You are taking this into the 21st Century, I am sure content will become more focused in the coming months as more professionals take part actively in the blog. Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight I was talking with Randy shortly after he exited yet another plane (how many states in how many days?) and the “…in just 3 short weeks…” comment bounced back and forth.

You see, the entire create-a-DesignShare-blog-experience started pretty innocently only 3 weeks ago today with just a single phone call: Read the rest of this entry »

“…the profession definitely needs a kick in the pants, and we see this year’s essay theme as an opportunity to provide it. ” — ArchVoices challenge (a true “Arm me with Audacity” call if I’ve ever heard it, Randy!)

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Okay, you’ve read the first post about the upcoming ArchVoices Essay Competition. Well, here’s part two to wet your whistle. They continue:

So, next time you and your co-workers get into a heated discussion about the future of architecture at an office happy hour, get out your sketchbooks and pens: the world is waiting to read your manifestoes, dreams, and even your carefully laid plans for architecture or revolution. Stage One’s 500-word essay proposals are due March 31, 2006. The future of our profession can hardly wait.

Want to know more? Read the rest of this entry »

“Frequent interaction with the public might elicit an enlivened interest in the role of architecture…” — Excerpt from “Engaging the Everyday,” by Hannah Teicher, 1st Prize, 2005 ArchVoices Essay Competition

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Many of you may be familiar with ArchVoices, a remarkable virtual community that supports the professional development of architectural interns as they move towards licensure. All of this grew out of an intern’s desire a few years back to find resources in an often confusing world of requirements, acronyms, and test preparation all while trying to just ‘get it’ as one moves from studio to professional practice. And in many ways, it is a reflection of the collaborative efforts of the DesignShare Blog as we all strive to not only share best practices but also seek to broaden the base of participants. Read the rest of this entry »

Had the pleasure of reading “Is This the School of the Future” (Scholastic Admnistrator magazine Feb. ‘06), last night, thanks to the suggestion of a superintendent I’m currently working with these days. His curiosity about the Microsoft/City of Philadelphia initiative was quite evident, both as a partnership and program. And I believe he was equally interested in it as a school ‘design’ in the purest architectural manner.

Without getting into the Microsoft debate, or even if this is or is not the ‘ideal’ progressive architectural solution, I simply pose the following question to you:

How would you describe the “school of the future” and what are the components and elements that give it meaning and form?