By Melody Harclerode
As an elementary school student, my school offered limited options for after school activities. I had the choice of music lessons or girl scouts. If I wanted to learn ballet, gymnastics, art or karate, my parents had to drive me offsite for classes. Fortunately, these extracurricular classes are now readily available for many Atlanta area elementary students.
The Atlanta chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Atlanta) has established Discover Architecture as a fun and innovative after school option for 4th and 5th graders. Does your child love to create building drawings, make building models, have an interest in architecture or related fields including interior design, structural engineering, and construction? Then Discover Architecture might be for them.
AIA Atlanta pairs volunteer architects and design professionals with an elementary school art or gifted teacher, who appreciates architecture and provides a classroom for this after school program. I like to refer to this collaboration as Architecture Harmony. Under the guidance of the volunteers and support of the teacher, students draw and explore the architecture in their neighborhood, metropolitan area and across the United States, participate in exciting design exercises and make building models during a minimum eight-week session.
These young people have the opportunity to hear presentations and career advice from various professionals in the design industry such as an architect, structural engineer or furniture designer. At the end of each semester, the students present their work to family, friends and the school community.
I co-founded the AIA Atlanta Discover Architecture program as a pilot program in fall 2010 at E. Rivers Elementary School with art teacher Phillip Alexander-Cox in Buckhead. With the support of fabulous architects and design professionals, we just finished this past semester at four additional Atlanta schools: Springdale, Mary Lin, Garden Hills and Morris Brandon Elementary Schools. As the accompanying pictures show, this innovative program brought lots of joy to the students and volunteers at E. Rivers during the fall 2011 session in which the students designed buildings for the Serenbe Community in South Fulton County.
AIA Atlanta wishes to add Discover Architecture as an extracurricular activity for more public and private elementary schools across metro Atlanta, particularly with the involvement of the school art or gifted teacher. To find out more, visit discoverarchitecture.org and contact me at mlharclerode@bellsouth.net.
Melody L. Harclerode, AIA, a local architect, promotes the power of architecture and design as a Board Member of the Atlanta chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Principal of Harclerode Architects (harc-arch.com). For more information about these programs, check out aiaatlanta.org.
