Tuition-free architectural education to launch June 1, 2017
June 1–July 15, 2017
The Free School of Architecture (FSA) is honored to announce its inaugural Board of Advisors for 2017–2018.
Drawn from the fields of education, community activism, journalism, publication, art and architecture, the FSA Board of Advisors will act as the school’s brain trust, offering expertise and advice on FSA’s pedadgogical and disciplinary direction as well as the school’s long range mission. Importantly, the FSA Board of Advisors will play a pivotal role in the formation of the school’s Executive Board, guiding the school to 501(c)(3) non-profit status in 2018.
The Free School of Architecture 17 member board is made up of (photograph: left to right, top to bottom):
Edgar Arceneaux, Artist and Founder, Watts House Project; Los Angeles, California
Nicholas Boyarsky, PhD. Architect, Director, Boyarsky and Murphy Architects; Faculty, Oxford Brookes University; London, United Kingdom
Dora Epstein-Jones, PhD. Executive Director, Architecture + Design Museum; Los Angeles, California
Marie-Hélène Fabre, Architect, Studio manager, Didier Fiúza Faustino / Mésarchitecture; Paris, France
Eva Franch, Architect, Chief Curator and Executive Director, Storefront for Art and Architecture; New York, New York
Viviana Franco, Founder and Executive Director, From Lot to Spot; Los Angeles, California
Cesar Garcia, Founder and Director, the Mistake Room; Los Angeles, California
Jorge Gracia, Architect and Founder, Escuela Libre de Arquitectura; Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Harriet Harriss, Senior Tutor, Royal College of Art; London, United Kingdom
Alfonso Medina, Architect, T-38 Studio; New York, New York and Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
William Menking, Founder and Editor, The Architect’s Newspaper; New York, New York
Yunhee Min, Artist, Associate Professor, University of California, Riverside; Los Angeles, California
Paul Preissner, Architect, Paul Preissner Architects; Associate Professor, UIC; Chicago, Illinois
Mohamed Sharif, Architect, Sharif Lynch Architecture; Lecturer UCLA AUD; Los Angeles, California.
Stephen Slaughter, Architect, Assistant Professor, University of Cincinnati; Cincinnati, Ohio
Mabel Wilson, PhD. Associate Professor, Columbia University GSAAP; New York, New York
Mimi Zeiger, Critic and Curator; Los Angeles, California
About the Free School of Architecture
The Free School of Architecture (FSA) is a tuition free, not-for-profit organization. Founded by educator and designer Peter Zellner in 2016, the Free School of Architecture will explore the edges of architectural education—promoting free inquiry, free discourse and free debate.
FSA will launch June 1, 2017 with a class of 36 students and a faculty of 10 teachers—offering 12 courses over the span of 6 weeks. By 2019, FSA is hoping to accept up to 48 students and will cap out at 72 students by 2020.
FSA’s classes will be organized into 5 topical course bundles or packets focused on:
–Architectural History and Theory
–Design and Aesthetic Theory
–Practical and Vocational Topics
–Philosophy
–General Studies
FSA students will not be graded nor will they ever produce design or written “products.” FSA students will make public presentations or responses to their peers and teachers in the form of a defense of an idea or a practice statement related to their academic or professional ambitions.
Through a series of public symposia, the Free School of Architecture will also explore new forms of education and pedagogy, disciplinary vs. vocational conversations, the socioeconomics of education: specifically diversity, social and community/political outreach and post-digital and/or post-studio education.
As FSA grows a blog and a vlog will be established to track and document FSA’s mission and activities via the Free Architecture Press (FAP). FAP will distribute course materials, lectures and students’ ideas or efforts online for free as well as in limited run print editions. FSAONE, the school’s online and print journal, will be issued in the fall of 2017. It will be followed by FSATWO in the spring of 2018 and FSATHREE in the fall of 2018.
For further press inquires, please contact: info [at] freeschoolofarchitecture.org
