Interview with Kristin Mullaney, Director of the American Institute of Architects, Architecture in Education Program

Kristin Mullaney is an architect at the firm of Amburn/Jarosinski .  As Chair of the Advisory Committee, she has been the de facto Director of the American Institute of Architects, Architecture in Eduction program in the Philadelphia area for the past five years.  In this time, Kristin has been responsible for connecting architects and architecture students to hundreds of elementary, middle and high school students throughout the region.

GE - Kristin, let's start by describing the AIE program and what it looks like in (and out of) classrooms.

Architecture in Education (AIE) was established in 1981 as a social activist program, aiming to empower students from kindergarten through high school by learning about the built environment.  AIE's mission is to help young people understand what it takes to make buildings and communities work for the people who live in them.  We believe that students who learn how cities are made, how design affects human behavior, how the natural and built worlds affect each other, and how individuals can influence their environments will be competent leaders of tomorrow's world.

AIE uses architecture as the basis for hands-on, interactive projects that connect, integrate and deepen student learning across the curriculum.  In AIE, students explore their world through drawing, writing, model-making, neighborhood walks, field trips, research, observation, and class presentation.  They become active learners and problem-solvers.

The core of AIE's work is an eight-week classroom-based program, made possible by the Philadelphia area architects and architecture students who so generously volunteer their time to teach with us.  Each program is custom-designed and taught by a three-person team, which consists of the classroom teacher, a volunteer design professional, and a university architecture student who receives course credit for his or her participation.  The design professional and the architecture student work with students in the classroom once a week, for a one-and-a-half hour period, for eight weeks.  The teacher integrates the program with the curriculum and helps communicate and clarify the new ideas.  The design professional connects the children to a new domain of knowledge and to the world of work, and offers ideas for hands-on projects that build upon what the children are studying that semester.  The architecture student connects the children to the world of the university, and acts as a bridge between the classroom students and the architect.

Since 1981, the AIE program has been with over 775 classrooms, 1000 teachers, 20,000 students, 1200 design professionals, and 700 college and university students.  We also maintain a website (www.aiaphila.org/aie).  For most of its history AIE was a part of the Foundation for Architecture.  When the Foundation folded in 2001, the members of the Advisory Committee took it on as an all-volunteer effort.  The AIA gave us a home at their Center for Architecture and a place for our Resource Center.

What does the program look like in the classroom?  Let's call it "lively."  The students tend to be excited about having the architects come and look forward to their arrival.  The architects always bring new ideas, pictures, materials, and stimulating thoughts.  The projects are active and discussions are interactive.  Students are challenged to look at their world a different way and to express themselves through drawing and building.

GE - This sounds like a great program to get all learners involved with their education, Kristin.  We're sure that it takes a great deal of your time and energy to make AIE the resounding success it has been during your tenure as Director.  What motivates you to give back in such a way?

I truly feel that this program is an investment in the future.  I was a volunteer architect in the classroom every semester for sixteen years before I took on the Director responsibilities.  I saw remarkable things happen.  One girl's mother told me that her daughter would never try to draw because her brother was good at it - after being in our program, this girl decided she wanted to be an art teacher when she grew up.  One boy worked seriously and diligently in our class but we found out later that he had gotten all the way to sixth grade without learning how to read.  He had never found anything about school worthwhile - after being in our program, he was motivated to study in all his classes and was able to go on to high school.  The program frequently reaches children who don't necessarily relate well to the standard ways of teaching and learning.  And it frequently motivates children to work hard.  On an evaluation, a fourth grader wrote, "When I said I can't do it the architect said I can do it."

Being the Director, I now have the opportunity to make connections between people, to find happy circumstances for the teachers, architects, and architecture students.  I love visiting the classes because I see lots of great ideas that I would never have thought of. The teachers feel it brings new perspective to their classrooms and they often go on to extend the idea of the built environment into their regular curriculum.  The architects are challenged to explain principles of design in a new way.  And the university students find themselves as role models and rise to the occasion of leadership.

But you're right that it takes a lot of time and energy to do this job - more than I have as a volunteer with a full-time job and other obligations.  There are a lot of opportunities we could be pursuing but at this time we're completely focused on the 8-week program.

GE - We have seen up close, how the AIE program can change students' lives in profound ways.  Your examples can be multiplied many times over and this is why the program is world class. 
Despite the time committment on the part of the architects, many have given their time and expertise over the years to work directly with students.   What do architects get out of participating in AIE?

An architect who had been working in the program wrote in her evaluation:  "I think the strength of the AIE program lies in bringing together experts at every level.  The student/teacher/professional team truly represents a broad range of authority on the subject of architecture in the classroom.  The other strength comes from the children themselves--this program has a magical way of revealing the children's hidden talents and ideas, perhaps previously unexplored in a traditional school setting, without the support of AIE.  I wish I could share every moment in the classroom that made me smile.   The students were always full of surprises."

I think architects enjoy getting out of their routines as much as anyone would.  The program makes them think and be creative in different ways than they would be in the office.  They meet new people with different points of view and they have the opportunity to bring their knowledge and perspective to others in return.  Young architects applying for their licenses get community service credits.  Plus there's nothing like the lift you get when you walk into a classroom and have thirty faces light up and go "Yes!!"

GE - Besides AIE being profoundly life changing for so many students, the Architecture in Education program sounds like a great deal of FUN.  Can you speak to the fun aspect of the program?

No one would do it if it weren't fun! 

The students comment time and time again on how much fun it is - sometimes they seem to be surprised they're learning because it's so much fun.  But, once they realize it's supposed to be that way, they work even harder.  I remember one boy whose class was designing and building a model of a late-nineteenth century town.  He didn't want to participate at all and said, thinking he would be shot down, that he would make a bar.  Instead the architects encouraged him, saying it should be a "saloon" and commenting on how important such establishments would have been in the town.  He ended up cooperating with his neighbors and building an elaborate model showing the exterior and the interior.

The adults have fun too.  Plenty of teachers were would-be architects in their youth and enjoy learning about how it works.  If they hadn't paid much attention to the built environment themselves before, it can open their eyes too.  I remember a teacher saying, when the architect suggested going on a neighborhood walk, "there's nothing to see in this neighborhood" and then being amazed at all there really was to see. 

The architects and architecture students enjoy the excitement in the kids as they proudly show off their accomplishments.  The classes are typically noisy and the atmosphere electric as students are measuring or drawing or building.  Architects are typically passionate and want to feel this excitement about their profession but the office routine doesn't always support such energy.  Last year a class even got to give its final presentation at the architects' office, letting their co-workers in on the excitement. 

The fun can reach out even further.  Sometimes the students' work is put on display in the school or other classes are invited to see what they have been doing.  We've had classes where the first time some of the parents have been to the school is to the presentation of their final projects.  Clearly, they have been going home and telling about the great AIE classes they've been having - some great dinner-time conversation!

Thanks, Kristen, for your invaluable insights about this vital AIE Community Partnership that has benefitted thousands of students over the last 25 years.

Comments

[Janet]

I cannot begin to say what a difference John has made to my life.
Guerilla!