Guy Gardner

Instructor of Building Science, Architectural Robotics and Computational Design, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Calgary, Canada and Director of Fabrication, Laboratory for Integrative Design, Calgary, Canada

Interviewed November 2020 by Martina MacFarlane

MM Thank you so much for joining us today. Tell us a little bit about your background and what you do at SAPL.

GG I am a graduate of the architecture program at the University of Calgary, and of the master of environmental design (MEDes) program. After finishing my architecture degree, I worked for a few years and then came back to the University of Calgary to engage in research through my MEDes degree. I spent a few years working under the supervision of Jason Johnson, one of our profs in the architecture program, looking at creative uses of digital fabrication tools, such as 3D printers and industrial robots. At the end of that research, I completed my MEDes thesis, and then was hired by the School of Architecture to work as the Robotics and City Building Design Lab (CBDL) Facilities Specialist. We have a couple of industrial robots, both on our main campus at the university, and then also in our satellite campus here at the CBDL. I am responsible for these tools, and I help out as a technician, supervising students and researchers who are working with that equipment. I also work out of the satellite campus here, and help students with 3D printing and provide support for any of the research that happens around digital fabrication.

MM Wonderful. Through SAPL you have lots of experience with digital technology and tools, but with the pandemic this year, things look different in a lot of ways. How has your facilitation and teaching changed?

GG When the pandemic started, I was in the middle of working on one of our block week workshops. We had just set up our exhibition and wrapped up the student work, and then the next day, the university was shut down. So, at that time I was halfway through teaching that course. I also teach the Introduction to Building Science for architects, and I was halfway through that course too. So, we switched over to an online delivery method and finished up that course on Zoom. Having to do that in the middle of the semester was a big adjustment. I think it was actually good for me, because I didn’t really have a choice about being able to adapt, and it got me really familiar with the process immediately.

Directly after that, we put together another course called Computational Design, which we could offer in the spring because we wanted to provide some continuity for students. We offered that course completely online, and it was great. We found that the students were really receptive to the content, and it gave us a chance to explore some other possibilities in terms of course delivery. We did a couple of the classes on Mozilla Hubs, which was interesting. It gave us a chance to try out some different things.

Over the summer we figured things out a little bit more. We hired a new faculty member and professor of robotics, Alicia Nahmad Vasquez, and toward the end of the summer I started working with her. We set up a way to deliver that class remotely, and that was the first time that I had to think about how we would give students access to the equipment. I think it’s really important for students to be able to have hands-on engagement with these kinds of tools and to really be able to understand how they work. I’ve always been someone who learns through doing and through making, and I think that this is really important for an architectural and design education in general. Working through some of those problems with that team has been quite interesting. We’ve come up with some creative solutions and we’re still constantly trying to develop and figure out new ways of working.

MM Overall, what do you think are some of the opportunities created by digital education?

GG First off, I think it’s important to recognize that the practice of architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning has become a heavily digital practice. It’s very important for people who are engaging in that field to be comfortable with working digitally, and be able to collaborate with teams in a distributed way, across different countries and continents. I think that using tools like Zoom and being able to work in teams and not necessarily having to meet in person but finding ways to share and mark up drawings and communicate in those ways, is really important from an educational perspective. We need students to be able to learn those processes. That’s what I want to keep in mind. This is just the reality of these professions in some ways.

It’s also important for designers to be able to construct models and explore tectonics through producing mock-ups and things like that. Those things are a bit more of a challenge. For example, at our workshop we’ve had to shift things so students are submitting fabrication files of their designs to our technicians. Rather than the students actually going into the shop and cutting the materials themselves, the technicians are producing those parts and giving them to the students so that they can assemble them on their own, if they are working locally. We are having to find ways for the students to get access to the equipment wherever they might be located, and we are making arrangements or alternative plans for students located outside of Calgary so that they are able to make up for that work in some other way. There are ways for us to give students the ability to control those machines from remote locations. Our IT department has been helpful in providing students with remote access to the computers in the labs and we’re also broadcasting videos of the robots working, so that the students have real-time access to see what those machines are doing and how they’re responding to the commands that are being sent to them. We’ve actually created an Instagram account for our robots so if people are interested, they can follow along @sapl.robots.

The other thing that’s been really nice is that, across all of the different institutions, I’m finding that other professors and technicians are being really collaborative, helpful, and interested in sharing the tricks and approaches that they’ve found to be working. It’s been interesting to tap into that larger network of people, who are all dealing with the same challenges.

MM It’s connecting us in different ways than before, and there is lots of opportunity in that. I’m curious about model making. My understanding of classes in my urban planning program is that the requirements for models have been lightened at this point, so obviously, there are lots more concessions being made in architecture to try and make these things happen. Are you finding that things are getting lost in translation during that process, or is there more creative problem solving as a result? How do you think that’s going?

GG Well, I’m still in the process of really testing that idea out. I’m teaching a class right now called Integrative Acoustics where we’re studying the acoustics of learning environments and looking at some spaces here in the building that I’m working in. We’re doing some simulations and then working toward producing mock-ups for the class that we’re hoping to be able to actually test using acoustics equipment. So up to this point the work has all been digital; it’s all been using simulation. One of the challenges that the students have encountered is that, sometimes, their own hardware is not as fast as the computers that they would have in the lab, so we’ve given them remote access to the lab computers so they can run the simulations on those. As we move into production mode, it is going to be interesting to see how the students are able to overcome some of those challenges. One of the ways that we’re making it work is that the students are going to be working in teams, so those who aren’t able to come in and directly work with their hands are able to contribute in other ways. Part of the whole reality of working in teams, and part of the profession as well, is that there’s a division of responsibilities. People need to understand how they can contribute and participate in their own way. Obviously, the documentation of processes becomes really important, and finding ways to be able to take time lapse photos, share the progress with the team, and those kinds of things can be really cool ways of addressing that. It’s all a big experiment right now.

MM We’re all in that together, for sure. In terms of online teaching, what’s your most-used software or tool?

GG Right now, definitely Zoom. I feel like I’m on Zoom all the time. I’ve also started using YuJa. It’s been nice to have TALON sharing this set of resources and tools; I’ve found it quite useful. Initially, I was recording all of my Zoom videos and then going back and trying to edit them down into usable clips that I could share with the students. I found that process to be time consuming and onerous, so finding other ways to speed that up a little bit has been nice.

MM And then what would be your favourite resource for teaching online? That can be inspiration, where you go for guidance, or anything like that.

GG One thing I want to mention that I found really useful as a platform is Discord. I can both make myself available to students, and more importantly, make them available to each other to try and make up for that missing studio culture that’s disappeared, which is so critical to architecture school. Normally in the studio, students are able to sit next to each other, look over each other’s shoulders, discuss their projects and talk about what techniques they’re using and how to address challenges with the software. Trying to replace that through an online server like Discord, or something like Microsoft Teams, I think can be quite important. It’s really great to try and facilitate ways for students to be able to communicate with each other in that way, so that they can learn from each other. I think students always learn more from each other than they ever do from their instructors.

In terms of resources that I’ve been using, there are some really amazing online tutorials that I’ve been just blown away by. One really good example is a YouTube channel called ParametricCamp. It was started by Garcia del Castillo who is an instructor at Harvard, and he’s been recording his lectures and posting live streams of him coding in different software languages. It’s been great to see people like that who are stepping up and facing this challenge by sharing more information and being really generous with their time.

That’s just one example, but there have been lots. There have been different conferences that have made their proceedings available online to people for free. Actually, as a person who’s interested in computational design, digital fabrication and those subject areas, there’s even more information available right now than there was a year ago. There’s so much, just this huge trove of information that’s been put out there and made available to people. Now is a really great time to engage in self-directed learning, I think.

MM We don’t necessarily know what the future holds, but what do you expect or hope for higher education in the next ten years?

GG Well, I hope that it continues to provide students with ways to be able to find their own path—their own passions and interests—so that they can connect to networks of like-minded people, come together and collaborate, and open up new areas of research and investigation. I think that in any sort of crisis, there’s opportunity. I think that the best possible opportunity that could come out of this is that, maybe before, people were a little bit intimidated to go up and approach somebody in person, like a prof, and ask them questions, but I hope that now they will feel a little bit more comfortable doing that online. It will allow for people to really find their niche in design, or in whatever field they happen to be in, and to find access to the resources and the people who can help them learn and achieve some really cool stuff. The technologies for automation and distributed manufacturing and those sorts of things are only accelerating because of this current situation. While it might feel at times that life is on hold, it’s moving forward very rapidly. It’s important that we stay on top of it and keep working all the time.

MM Absolutely. I think it’s really interesting that you touched on that comfort level, or layer of safety, that comes with being in your own home, and that people are able to take advantage of all these things that are now readily available. These are great positives for sure. So, Guy, you’ve answered all the questions I had. Is there anything else you want to add to the conversation?

GG I just wanted to say thanks to TALON—to you guys—for taking the time and taking on this extra responsibility, in the midst of all this. It is appreciated.

Reflection

Since this interview I’ve learned that we will be returning to in-person classes this Fall, and I am looking forward to it. Despite our best efforts, I’ll be the first to admit that remote instruction isn’t the same, at least for the type of content I teach. In the interview, I focused a lot on the opportunities provided by technology, but I think it’s also important to acknowledge the difficulties we’ve all faced over the last eighteen months.

There are so many technical challenges that interrupt the normal flow of information and interaction; delays that set things back; and, an occasional lack of engagement or sense of apathy. I think students, instructors and everyone involved has done their best to try to deliver a positive experience, but at times it has felt … remote.

One thing that this year has reinforced for me is the irreplaceable importance of real, tangible sensations and experiences; spending time with friends and colleagues after a long separation and being able to examine details with all the senses and experiencing presence.

As things ramp back up in the coming year, I hope we take forward the important lessons from this pandemic. I hope we continue to refine and share the tools and skills we’ve found and built to improve access, remove barriers, and share information. Most of all, I hope we maintain a sense of empathy, compassion and understanding of our connectedness to those both near and far.

About

Guy Gardner is an instructor in building science, architectural robotics and computational design at the University of Calgary School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, and is the director of fabrication with the Laboratory for Integrative Design. His design research explores the intersections of technology, art and architecture, with a focus of design-build and learning through making. He has extensive experience in digital design and fabrication and has collaborated on a variety of residential, public space design and community art projects in Alberta.