Architecture
Architecture is a discipline that is practiced; an architect is said to “practice” design. Practicing synthesizes performance, iteration, testing, and the translation of ideas into action. That is, a practice is not so much the acquisition of a finite body of knowledge as the pursuit of a dynamic, ever-evolving area of expertise and intelligence. And yet, architecture is also a discipline—rooted in precision, order, focus, and self-direction. At the Knowlton School of Architecture, we are dedicated to fostering an education that enables students to develop their own practice-based discipline. While an architectural curriculum must include the factual knowledge necessary for a young professional to enter the field, architects typically mature as professionals many years after they graduate, long after the codes and technologies they studied in school have been superseded. We seek to empower the next generation with the tools to think and work like architects: to combine a creative practice with precision and rigor; to assimilate new and currently unimaginable materials and information, in short to provide a means, rather than an end.
Located in Columbus, Ohio, known as “Test Market, USA,” because of its mid-continental location and median demographics, the school is geographically and intellectually situated to cultivate the exploration and investigation of new ideas outside the cultural hegemony of the coasts. While some architecture programs define themselves by engaging a specific and often singular polemic, the KSA has fostered a diverse discourse and design culture. Rather than aligning itself with a single paradigm, the school fosters a productive promiscuity across a range of disciplinary thought that has established it as a locus of intellectual and cultural activity. For students, the resulting breadth of educational opportunities better prepares them for the increasingly varied careers they pursue as the practice of architecture continues to expand beyond conventional disciplinary boundaries.
Dedicated in 2004, Knowlton Hall is an award-winning facility designed by the architects Mack Scogin and Meril Elam that houses architecture, landscape architecture and city and regional planning, enabling fruitful interaction between disciplines. At the base of Knowlton Hall sits the materials and digital fabrication lab, a state-of the art facility where technology and craft, experimentation and precision meet. The top floor holds the library, a contemplative, cerebral space with a collection of over 30,000 volumes. Sandwiched between the lab and the library are the studios—the heart of the school where thinking and making converge. Their continuous buzz suffuses the building with the palpable energy of intellectual inquiry. Here, the physical intersection of spaces spawns a creative intersection of thinking, making, writing, fabricating, debating and drawing, providing an incredibly fertile ground for the future of the discipline to be practiced.