Metropolis Magazine highlights schools as Innovative Centers of Learning

Conserving energy and creating healthy materials, products, buildings, and communities are essential components of good design, and the tools and technologies necessary to accomplish these goals are only just beginning to be thoroughly integrated into the curricula of many design schools. In this special installment of Learning Curve—now expanded to include both apprenticeship programs and initiatives coming out of traditional colleges and universities—we look at a handful of new institutes, programs, and schools teaching environmental principles to the next generation of architects, landscape architects, engineers, and conservators, as well as extending their knowledge into the broader community.

American College of the Building Arts (ACBA)
After Charleston was hit by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the city needed to restore more than half of its 4,000 historic structures, but there were few craftsmen who knew how. “There were no artisans locally or nationally, so Charleston had to look internationally,” says Charles Anderson, ACBA vice president for development. Building experts were brought in from Europe, but concerned locals realized that skilled artisans were needed to preserve all of the country’s historic structures and began developing the nation’s only four-year program for the building arts, with input from France’s Les Compagnons du Devoir.

Last fall the college enrolled its first 15 students, who will receive training in vernacular techniques such as architectural stone carpentry, finish carpentry, masonry, architectural metalwork, plaster working, and timber framing—skills that are once again in demand for their sustainability and endurance. The school isn’t focused solely on preservation, however; students will also learn the latest fabrication techniques and building technologies. —Kristi Cameron

Clemson University Restoration Institute (CURI)
What connects historic preservation, advanced building materials and technologies, urban ecology, and health-care design? They all fall within the purview of Clemson’s ambitious new graduate institute, which aims to develop an integrated knowledge base for building healthy communities.

“This program entails the preservation of architectural structures but also deals with the fact that our infrastructure is deteriorating and we’re going to have to replace everything,” CURI dean Janice Schach says. “We’re under huge population-growth pressure and don’t have enough natural materials to support the building boom. We need to make the most of our current structures and then look at how we can develop in a way that’s more sustainable.”

In April the program was granted 82 acres for a campus in North Charleston, adjacent to Noisette—the largest urban redevelopment project in the country—where the school will collaborate with developer John Knott and the American College of the Building Arts. CURI already offers degrees through five of Clemson’s academic colleges, and the institute hopes to begin construction of its facilities this fall. —Kristi Cameron

For the full article, visit MetropolisMag.com.