Earlier this month, Associate Professor Ted Sawruk presented a paper at the 40th National Conference on the Beginning Design Students (NCBDS) hosted by North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.
The conference focused on the development of pedagogy, methodology, and curriculums that address the success of architecture students in the first two years of their undergraduate education. The conference organizers realized in the early 1980s that significant student attrition, especially female and minority students, occurred during this critical period.
Dr. Sawruk’s paper, co-authored with Rebeccah Tuscano-Moss of the Westminster School in Simsbury, focused on an interdisciplinary design-build year-long curriculum developed for high school (K-12) students studying architecture design. The paper, From Weaving Wall to Vertical Farm: How the Arts Can Promote Interdisciplinary, Holistic, Real-world Connections, highlights a five-part, yearlong curriculum, that addresses climate change and urban food shortages, in relation to the design of urban garden structures, finally realizing the design-build construction of a 10’x12’ vertical farm. The paper will also be published in the conference proceedings.
Student Design Vertical Farm
Final Student Design
Student Built Vertical Farm