Poly Learn By Doing Commons

President Jeffrey Armstrong and dean Theodoropoulos invited Cal Poly architecture and landscape architecture students to participate in a design charrette to develop proposals for a future Poly Learn By Doing Commons. The goal was to design spaces that promote interdisciplinary collaboration across campus. The charrette required a week of intensive team work and resulted in a series of indoor and outdoor project proposals.

Some of the learning objectives for students included translation of client needs into projects, developing design responses that recognize constraints, and integrating daylight, skin system thermal optimization and ventilation into the design.

Formal presentations to the esteemed jurors took place on Monday, January 13, with awards  presented that evening for the top four team projects, listed below with team members.

TRI.UNITY

A new Learn By Doing Commons should encompass all learning styles, regardless of the student’s major.  Flexible spaces enable students to choose where to study based on their learning styles—visual, aural, or kinesthetic. Shops and labs provide more kinesthetic spaces, galleries and a black box theatre incorporate more visual elements for learning. The landscape surrounding this facility enables natural light to enter interior spaces, and outdoor spaces accommodate numerous activities.

Student Team:

Ladane-Amelie Rongere
Natacha Schnider
Melissa Renee Shi
Matthew Michael Parker

(download 8.5 MB PDF)

ABSOLVING THRESHOLDS
Kevin James Geraghty
Anissa M. Miranda
Elizabeth Erin Wong
Chad W. Thompson

SYMBIOTIC PODS
Sonia Avelar
Alexander John Jewell
Mohtaram Tavassoli
Paul Steimer

OBEISANCE
Karin Elizabeth Bjorkman
Katherine Grace Jones
Jake Edward Kutzin
Summer Elizabeth Spencer
Nathan Abrea