DESIGN-BUILD: WARGO NATURE CENTER HERITAGE LAB
MAKER CULTURE
It’s one thing for your final project to stand up to final reviews, but quite another for it to withstand heavy outdoor use by generations of children. This spring and summer, associate professor John Comazzi (Architecture) taught a design-build graduate module in partnership with Anoka County Parks and Recreation Department to fabricate and install learning kiosks at the Wargo Nature Center Heritage Lab for local schools and summer camps. Comazzi explained that more and more architecture degree programs are incorporating courses beyond the traditional design studio— including professional practice, environmental technologies, and 8 EMERGING FALL 2016
structural design. “With this type of integration, designbuild offers unique opportunities for students to formulate strong connections across multiple content areas,” he noted. This particular design-build also challenged the students to work with clients, developing professional skills while refining their design strategy. “In preparation for our public presentations with our community partners, the students worked in groups to formulate a narrative about their respective designs,” Comazzi said. The Heritage Lab program introduces students in grades 1 through 6 to Minnesota history, with themes including voyageurs; American Indians in Minnesota; pioneers and settlers; and milling, mining and lumbering. “The goal is to provide them with a handson, fun, educational opportunity that will connect them with the area around them and make history interesting,” said Krista Harrington, Wargo Nature Center program supervisor.
The students’ structures will enhance the Heritage Lab experience. “The stations are designed to be interactive and hands-on and the presenters are in time-period appropriate costumes. The students may participate in activities like being in a one-room schoolhouse with pioneers or learning what it was like as a Civil War nurse and being at a field hospital or visiting a trapper’s camp during voyageurs,” Harrington explained. YMCA’s Camp Heritage will also integrate the structures into day camp programming. The design-build process gave its community partners a fresh perspective on their day-to-day work at the park. “The ideas and collaborative process that the students went through really served as a kick-start to get me out of my normal thought process. It made me start to question what we do and how to begin to widen our horizons,” added Wargo Nature Center operations supervisor Lisa Gilliland. z.umn.edu/emgf16g
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