An architecture professor has created a new studio in response to student concerns voiced last semester about the College of Architecture curriculum.

Associate professor Adam Lanman has started teaching a digital studio that he said requires the kind of effort and drive architecture students "are looking for and want more of."

Several architecture students expressed a desire last semester for a more intense education. The students held a student-faculty forum to request a change in curriculum.

Lanman said the studio, which is available to third-year architecture students, teaches various computer programs that will expand students' ranges. He also said the skills they are learning in the digital studio are relatively new to architecture, so it will help them get ahead of the game.

Lanman said the studio also introduces the students to issues such as urbanization and globalization, that they might not be exposed to otherwise. He said he wants them to get an education that will allow them to be more competitive as professionals. He said the studio is organized to operate the way a professional design team would.

Lanman said it is obvious how passionate the architecture students are and how strongly they care about their education.

Michael Porter, third-year architecture student, said students learn about the various software in more detail than they would working in other studios.

"We're going to learn it a lot more intensely," Porter said. "It's a more modern studio. We're experiencing what we're designing."

Sammy Raof, third-year architecture student, said the digital studio offers students more tools that enable them to take design to the next level.

"It shows us more than a two-dimensional drawing can," Raof said.

Because the digital studio was a response to students' desire for a change in curriculum, Porter said he thinks it is strange that only 11 students chose to participate. He said Lanman is known for having a rigorous course load, but he enrolled in the studio because he wanted to learn and was willing to work harder.

He said that, out of about 40 third-year students, it was disappointing that so few enrolled in Lanman's studio.

In the studio, Lanman's students will complete three projects this semester. The first is a hypothetical problem that will teach students the essentials of putting a building together.

He said the concept focuses on globalization and the idea that everything today is getting bigger.

Porter said they are using the idea of Wal-Mart being a "neighborhood market" and enlarging that concept to create a city. He said the city offers everything found in a typical Wal-Mart, plus housing for 10,000 to 20,000 people, schools, hospitals, a monorail, hotels, parks and restaurants.

Lanman said they think of the project as "a city inside of a box, and Wal-Mart owns the box."

The second project will focus on animation and Web design. Lanman said it will be an in-house competition that the students will present to the Vancouver International Digital Festival, or VidFest. He said VidFest is an interactive DVD competition and the objective is to use both animation and film to make representations, which is a critical element in architecture.

The last project, Lanman said, will be a surprise.
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