Catalina Freixas
The course Architecture For Non-Architects [AFNA] is supported by CityStudio STL, Sam Fox School of Design Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis. AFNA is a foundational course that acquaints students with the principles and practices of architectural design. Beginning with a community-based project, the curriculum integrates lectures, readings, and research to guide participants through understanding and shaping the built environment. Field trips play a key role, encouraging active observation and engagement with both the physical site and invested stakeholders. Cultivating observation is essential to perceiving our surroundings with intention, yet many people view the environment passively, shaped by habits and past experiences. To counter this, AFNA encourages students to document the built environment during neighborhood and park visits. They map key people, places, and events highlighted by guides, annotate their findings, and take photographs to creatively capture formal and informal histories, preserving cultural identity. Students focus their research on the people, spaces, and events that have shaped Kirkwood’s identity. They consolidate what they learn into a collage that combines text and visuals, using it as the foundation for further design exploration. Expanding their research, students investigate urban transformation by examining connectors and pocket parks, developing practical strategies for improvement. They extract patterns from their collages, refine them into new landscape and spatial concepts, and test ideas through physical site models. This capstone experience consolidates technical and creative skills while preparing students for future collaborative design challenges in academic and professional contexts.