An almost 20 year old, not-so crazy idea is coming to life…..

RAW – Real Architecture Workshop

A little bit of the journey that’s brought me to this point…..

I have practiced architecture for twenty years. I went to school at St. Olaf College and the Harvard GSD and co-founded Locus Architecture, in Minnesota where I was born and raised.  I’ve always been "good with my hands" as they say. Maybe that's part of why I was drawn to the design field – because I like to dream and create the things I dream about: a boat, “Jesus boots” (shoes to walk on water), the home I share with my wife and kids.

Between college and grad school I worked as a carpenter, building not-so-well-designed houses in the sprawling suburbs of Minneapolis.  Although I realized early on that the work lacked a lot – like quality design and a sense that what I was doing was actually making a difference in the world – I held on to the idea that the skills I learned would help me become a better architect.  And I believe it has.

When I entered graduate school a few years later, I was amazed to find out that my experience and building skills made me the odd-ball among my fellow students. And I began to ask the question: Why did my grad program not provide for, or even expect, students to gain actual construction experience by the time they left school?  There are no doubt many possible answers but I believe there is an unspoken bias among many architecture programs that “building” is for trades’ people and, in a way, limiting and beneath the work of an architect.  But since when does more knowledge and skill equate to fewer choices for design?   In my experience, never.

Our design skills are enhanced by real construction know-how and by an intuitive sense of materials that comes from actually touching, feeling and working with them. As importantly, following in the footsteps of the “master builder”, the more we expand our knowledge and skills the more we have to offer our clients, including the 90% of the world who don’t typically benefit from design.

If you don’t believe me on this last point, ask yourself these questions.  “What value would my architecture skills have if the 10% of the world’s population who can “afford” our services go away?”  Put another way, “What can I, as an architect, offer to the poorest, least educated person I know?”  Although I’ve struggled with this question for 20 years, the state of the current economy has a lot of young architects wondering if what they learned in school is relevant and useful in today’s world.

That’s why I started RAW – Real Architecture Workshop, experiential workshops that take architecture students out of the classroom to design and build real projects for real clients in real life. I’ve been fortunate to create this type of experience in the past.  Together with my business partner, Wynne Yelland, I’ve taught design/build studios in Biloxi, MS and St. Paul, MN with the University of Minnesota, College of Design.  Each time, it’s been incredibly challenging and equally rewarding.  My goal with RAW is to create that kind of “touch the burner” experience.

But RAW isn’t for everyone.  We will travel to places where cell phones lose their reach and the national language isn’t spoken; focus on one and only one project from the moment you step out of your car ‘til the day you leave; mountain bike, kayak and rappel up, down and across diverse landscapes and, through all of this, make a difference in people’s lives with the projects we build.  Think of it as architecture bootcamp.

We are starting out this summer with one project with room for 12 students. Together we will design and create something special in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Plans are being made and details are getting figured out. I can hardly wait. Stay tuned.

- Paul Neseth