Educator/Practitioner Network (EPN)

The EPN Advisory Committee is composed of educators and practitioners dedicated to facilitating partnerships between educators and practitioners for the professional preparation of architects.

Call for candidates for an EPN Advisory Committee appointment
The AIA Educator/Practitioner Network invites self-nominations from educators and/or practitioners who would like to join the EPN Advisory Committee for a four-year term, beginning in January 2009.
For further information, click here. Please submit your letter of interest and resume to epn@aia.org by October 14. Thank you for your interest!

The 2008 Walter Wagner Forum: The role of architecture schools in service to society
Architecture schools engage in service to society in a variety of ways. They provide opportunities for students to become involved on their campuses and in their communities; they initiate projects and programs that address social, environmental, economic, and humanitarian needs. Following a peer review process, three papers that address this topic were selected for the Walter Wagner Forum at the AIA National Convention in 2008. For papers by authors from the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, University of Virginia, and Rice University, click here. This program was provided in partnership with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the American Institute of Architecture Students.

The Walter Wagner Forum was initially developed jointly by the American Institute of Architects and Architectural Record magazine as a tribute to the late editor of Architectural Record, Walter Frederick Wagner, Jr., FAIA, who died in July 1985. Walter Wagner was particularly committed to the education of young architects and the education of the public about architecture and architects. The first Walter Wagner Education Forum was held in June 1986 in San Antonio.

New model for accreditation available for review and comment
The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) adopted a new model (in concept) for the accreditation of architecture programs at their July Board meeting. The first draft is now available for review and comment. The Fusion Model, as it is called, is based on five preliminary models presented earlier this year. You are invited to review the Fusion Model according to a scorecard developed by NAAB with the participation of the collateral organizations. One of the criteria on the scorecard for an effective model is that the model should support the objectives consistently expressed by the collaterals: sustainability, integrated design, integrated practice, leadership and social responsibility. Read more

Also, for your reference, see the AIA White Paper for the NAAB Accreditation Review Conference approved by the AIA Board of Directors in December 2007.

The CND Project for carbon-neutral design
In an important partnership with the academy, the EPN is working with the Society of Building Science Educators (SBSE), the AIA Committee on the Environment and the AIA Sustainability Discussion Group (SDiG) to convene a summit and produce a Carbon Neutral Design Resource for educators and practitioners. This partnership will capitalize on the expertise of building science educators and practitioners to produce peer reviewed, web-ready content on carbon-neutral design. The resulting materials will be disseminated through the AIA’s website, through the SBSE’s international network, and through other academic channels.

The CND Summit is conceived of as an intensive, three-day workshop focused on the development of consensus based guidelines, strategies, tools, and resource lists for carbon-neutral design. Participants will include educators from the CND Educators’ Network who are currently teaching architectural design studios with carbon-neutrality as a theme and practitioners nominated by AIA and/or SBSE who are designing low carbon residential and commercial projects. The outcomes of the summit, which will be held this November, will be used to develop an online, web-based resource. The CND Resource will provide practical design guidelines and strategies to assist in design and planning processes for carbon-neutral design, including case studies that document successful built projects and an annotated bibliography of CND tools and software.

Cranbrook 07 Integrated Practice and the Twenty-first Century Curriculum
Cranbrook 07, a special joint session of the ACSA Teachers Seminar and the AIA Educator/Practitioner Network Summer Practice Institute, June 28-July 1, 2007, explored the impact of emerging project delivery methods and the imperative of sustainability on the professional curriculum. The conference included a series of panel presentations on themes related to the central challenge of what changes are needed in architecture education to prepare for changes occurring in practice and in the construction industry. Summaries of presentations on ethics and responsibility, practice and criticism, research and design are included in the proceedings as well as a comparative summary of team presentations and closing responses by Edward Allen, FAIA.

This conference built on previous conferences organized by the AIA -- the Oak Park conference on integrated practice and the Pomona conference on sustainability. Text and drawings depicting concepts for architecture education are included in the proceedings with an introduction by Norman Strong, FAIA.

These conferences addressed key issues that will be considered by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and others involved in the accreditation review process underway this year. Printed proceedings were distributed to educators in all ACSA member schools and to committee leaders of the AIA. For the complete proceedings, click here

EPN News-Spring 2008
The EPN produces a newsletter to report on its initiatives, relevant issues, and resources. This electronic newsletter is published several times a year with additional announcements distributed as they become available. A special edition of EPN News focusing on the NAAB Accreditation Review Conference was produced last year, EPN News-Summer 2007. To read more, see the Fall 2006 issue of EPN News, Summer 2006, Spring 2006, and Summer 2005.

The EPN Advisory Committee
The EPN Advisory Committee is dedicated to facilitating partnerships between educators and practitioners for the professional preparation of architects.

• Oversees a series of ongoing programs, including the AIA Education Honor Awards, the AIA Case Studies Initiative, and the AIA Component Matching Grant Program, providing matching scholarship funds for students to attend NAAB-accredited architecture programs;
• Provides opportunities for dialogue through programs such as the Walter Wagner Forum at the AIA national convention (see above;
• Serves in an advisory capacity to the AIA and as a liaison to the collateral organizations (The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, American Institute of Architecture Students, National Architectural Accrediting Board, National Council of Architectural Registration Boards) on questions of relevance to both practice and education.

2008 EPN Advisory Committee: