Wasatch Elementary Artist Evening

Last night I was invited to display and talk about some of my architecture to elementary school students at Wasatch Elementary. I was part of a group of 20 local artists that were asked to participate. I brought my masters project model and a few sketches, including sketchbooks from Spain and India.

I wanted to show examples of contemporary design (both my own and others) to talk to the kids about imagination and broadening their vision for what architecture is and more specifically what a home could be. It was fun to see their eyes light up when they saw some of the "funky" designs from some of my books and some of the sketches that I have done. I asked a few of them if they could see themselves living in some of the houses from my book and the answer was an absolute yes. This gives me a lot of hope for the future generations and their appreciation of what could be in architecture. These little people are the ones that we should be educating in art and architecture.

The highlight of the night was my "Hip Hip Architecture" model for sure. The kids loved seeing all the little people in the model and almost fell over when I took it out of its base and then pulled it apart so they could see inside it. It was fun to be able talk about building sections, model making, sketching, and imagination. The kids were fantastic!


The kid in the red shirt loves architecture and wants to be an architect. I told him that I hear many people tell me that they thought about being an architect when they were younger but never did it and that he should follow his dreams and never give up. I think he probably went straight home and downloaded sketchup.


The kid holding the model asked me about a million questions. "Have you ever thought about designing a building that floats in the sky?" "Have you ever thought about designing a building that is in the ocean?" "Have you ever thought about designing this building with really tall towers on it?" "Have you ever designed a building that is in the mountain?"......... I think you get the idea. I think he was at my table for at least 45 minutes. Don't worry, the guy on the right didn't want to kill me, he just looks that way.


This little guy wanted to trace all of my sketches from my sketchbook. I handed out tracing paper to all the kids that came by and they had fun drawing. One kid I asked to draw me a house and so he did. It was the typical pitched roof with a central door and windows on the sides. Then I showed him a photo of a contemporary house that had a ribbon structure that formed the walls and roof. He immediately started to change his drawing and do some crazy stuff to it. It is fun to see a young mind change in an instant.