Stephan Castellanos:
We are a knowledge-based profession. How do we capture the requisite knowledge to truly be capable of solving the problems we face in the profession and in the society? We thought that a movement toward specialization, if you will, that accelerates change in architecture practice, could also include partnership between the academy and practice. This has been mentioned at different points in the summit as well as advocacy at the federal level for more resources. We feel like there’s so much more available in terms of resources and there’s so much more that we need to ask in conferring with industry, as well as the federal government and the cabinet, to move design and structures to higher levels.

The classic idea is that before knowledge comes to you, you need a growth economy, and this depends on relationships being free of concern. The whole notion of an expanding audience, integrated with the industry and across the academy, plus having the critical primary strategy to be able to move us forward is critical.

Discussion

Edward J. Vidlak, AIA: What does that means to research, and how does AIA become an equal visionary partner of the profession? The AIA wants to celebrate global research and researchers—for example, its collaboration with ARCC. You’ve got to make sure that our members know where the findings are in the country.

At the same time, acknowledging members and member firms that are involved in that research is a recruiting tool, not just for schools but also for those firms. It’s something that we all benefit from. We begin to let our membership know that research is important. It's an important part of the culture.

Stephan Castellanos: There is a need for the next monitor, a reinforcing of the idea of research that’s going on firms. We talked about NBBJ and what that they're doing in other firms across the country, and we talked about another firm that focuses on nothing but being a research firm.

   >
01  02  03  04  05  06