Student's view : About [DesignBuildBLUFF]

DesignBuildBLUFF is a program for graduate students to realize architecture that nurtures the spirit and improves the lives of all who experience it.

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I’ll tell you with 100% confidence that the Bluff experience will have been the most valuable and rewarding part of my education. I think that the school of architecture and the “real world” are disconnected for the most part. The closest we students get to real world practice are the few and far between studio projects that actually force you to take practicality into consideration. But even these projects are based in the studio where all you touch and see is the keyboard and computer screen. There’s something extremely powerful about hands-on experience, no matter what field you’re in. And these days it seems as though contractors build without the cares of design, and architects design without the cares of constructability. Educational experiences such as DesignBuildBLUFF force you to step into the shoes of the builder, and you quickly learn about the consequences on the jobsite as a result of what you, as an architect, have put on paper...
I am very grateful for being able to participate in this program and hope that it continues to educate future architecture students.
- Sean Baron
dbb Spring 2009

This incredible program brings students out of the theoretical problems and into the practical solutions of architecture. Most architectural students are visual learners and what better way to study architecture then by example and building it yourself. Getting over setbacks and coming up with a practical solution with minimal means and limited resources. Nobody can go away, after having been a part of this program, and be the same as they were before. It has a way of changing you. Design Build BLUFF is the best thing I’ve done in my many years of education. I learned not only how to be a better architect and designer but a better citizen and cause for change.
- Kinley Puzey
dbb Spring 2008

Perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned at Bluff is the need for empathy.
Empathy for my fellow students, coworkers and co-habitants: the friends that I have lived, worked, played and studied with for five months and the impact that they have had on my life. I am ever impressed by their hard work, dedication, resolve, enthusiasm, and laughter. There have been times too numerous to count that I have drawn energy and strength from their dedication when my own reserves were low; their passion for this project can be both amazing and humbling. Teamwork, though it may sound cliché, is critical to our functioning, and while I certainly am no expert at it yet, I can see its importance in the success of our semester...
The rest relies on skills far beyond that of us as future architects, requiring a more intimate touch than we can contribute. We leave our project to Maxine, Maurice and family to turn this house into a home. They now begin the process of moving furniture, pictures and belongings to fashion an ownership that only they can create. And so it becomes clear that we’re not at the end – we’re at the beginning; the beginning of something quite wonderful and the fruition of which none of us can fully foresee.
- Joshua Paulsen
dbb Fall 2010

Early morning in a tiny mesh-topped tent; all I can see is a serrated black silhouette against the milky sky and fading stars. In daylight, the dark forms are towering burnt red sandstone bluffs and in another hour the countless rocky facets of Sunbonnet Rock and Navajo Twins will be an intricate play of shadow and color...
The workday starts slowly – unloading tools, putting on sun-block and hats, waiting for the last truck to arrive... Sweat and sore muscles are a testament to the effort required to move life-size building materials around. The day ends and we are tired but satisfied; this isn’t a studio model that can be built in a weekend, but we have made discernible progress along with the inevitable missteps, and tomorrow we will have a new starting point and new challenges.
- Jonah Rogin
dbb Fall 2010