Design/Build with Jersey Devil: A Handbook for Education and Practice

by Charlie Hailey

Steve Badanes, Jim Adamson, and John Ringel believe an architect's job does not stop at designing a building, but that it extends to constructing it as well. Now working into their fifth decade, Jersey Devil, the loose-knit group they founded in 1972, bands together under this design/build ethos that an architect's place is just as much on the job site as it is at the drawing board. The trio pioneered design/build practice and their influence has spawned more than one hundred design/build programs.
Jersey Devil's process and expertise are unpacked in this Architecture Brief, providing students and teachers with a toolkit for design/build education. Through stories, didactic commentary, and sample exercises, the Design/Build complements nuts-and-bolts content with Jersey Devil's philosophy and perspective, allowing the book to impart practical instruction while acting as a valuable guide for navigating the elusive challenges of design/build. Themes touch on socially responsible architecture, intuition and intentionality, detailing and fostering craftsmanship, group work and collaboration, off-the-shelf components and nonstandard applications, educational reform, ethos and risk, good life and play, the politics of building, and university-community relations.

Genres: Architecture

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 19, 2016

About the author

Charlie Hailey is an architect, writer, and professor. A Guggenheim Fellow and Fulbright Scholar, he is the author of six books, including The Porch: Meditations on the Edge of Nature, Camps: A Guide to 21st Century Space and Slab City: Dispatches from the Last Free Place. Hailey teaches design/build, studio, and theory at the University of Florida, where he was recently named Teacher/Scholar of the Year.

Reviews

[Jeremy Hornik · Rating 4 out of 5]

A passionate defense of the value in having the designer and builder hats being worn by the same head. Like Oobleck in theater, or the game designers who also write code. Plus, an environmental and attractive aesthetic. Neat stuff, cool exercises.