Public Workshop + Our #teendesignheroes Are Featured In Fast Company Magazine!

‎”The burgeoning trend in design-thinking education is embracing the F-word. One organization that embodies this empowering education model is Public Workshop.“~ Fast Company

What better way to cap a long day of meetings to find a few of our Chicago #teendesignheroes—Jeisson, Audrey, Jovanna, Edwin, Joseph and Diana–standing proudly at the top of the Fast Company webpage (click >>HERE<<)? Needless to say there are few that are more deserving of this than these superstars and wow-o-wow we are smiling. Last summer, these #teendesignerheroes were a part of the ‘doing’ boot-camp that we have led for the past four years for the fantastic folks at the Chicago Architecture Foundation at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin. As the article states, from day one we accomplish great things by through learning by doing; building again and again; and failing magnificently. Pencils and rulers are prohibited, capture the flag, hide-n-go-seek and 18 hour days are required. As Jeisson so aptly puts it,

“Prepare yourself to build, tear down, build, tear down, and build again so that finally you can have what you may call your first draft. Sound tough? You’re telling me! Thankfully, while it is challenging, it’s also one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”

The results? Well, in five short days, from scratch–including identifying the problem, user research and siting the resulting structure–the #teendesignheroes design and build structures like the one below.

More importantly, this unique process and experience has a profoundly transformative impact on the everyone involved–#teendesignheroes, teachers, visitors and our generous hosts at Taliesin. If you haven’t already done so, make sure you read some of the #teendesignheroes‘ posts in which they report and reflect upon the experience. We assure you they are quite moving and worth the read. In particular, have a look at Diana’s post. Unlike most of this year’s #teendesignheroes, she hadn’t taken any architecture classes in high school–and was initially very tentative as a result–but our unique design process helped her accomplish amazing things.

Click >>HERE<< to read more.

Incredible thanks to the outstanding Katie Koch of Project Interaction who was one of our Teaching Fellows this year and designed the graphic treatment for great image that you see at the top of the Fast Company article; Daniel Splaingard who is a Rose Fellow and was our other remarkable Teaching Fellow; Victor Sidy and everyone at Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture; and the folks at the Chicago Architecture Foundation—Jen Masengarb, Jean Linsner and Krisann Rehbein–who do incredible work and make this experience possible every year.

Lastly, thanks to Melanie Kahl of Perkins + Will in Chicago for spending a day with us last summer and for writing the article. We don’t mind saying that you rock.