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Program Overview
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Program Overview

The Public Interest Design Program connects advanced students interested in the built environment and public service with leading practitioners in public design, and equips them with the tools needed to create beautiful, sustainable, and community-enhancing spaces. In this program, students develop skills to leverage the practical and ethical complications of public service as a means to heighten the quality of their work by seeking innovative design solutions that positively impact larger social problems.

The PID program offers design students the opportunity to investigate what it means to be a public servant. Much like public health is to medicine, this program contributes to the emerging understanding of the civic role of design professions. It aims to contribute to the larger national discussion about how public design may be integrated into the architecture curriculum, operating in dialogue with other similar emerging programs. The UTSoA hopes to serve as a hub for innovative thinking about the nature, ethics, and boundaries of public design, and to contribute to the larger dialogue already in progress as evidenced by exhibitions like the Cooper-Hewitt's "Design for the Other 90%" and the MOMA exhibition "Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement".

Curriculum

The 2012 PID program will be comprised of a research-oriented seminar, a service-oriented practicum, and a new externship opportunity, which will be held over eight weeks of the summer. The 2012 program will be coordinated and taught by Steven Moore and Francisco Gomes of the University of Texas. There will also be an array of special guest lecturers from across the country, from the University of Texas faculty, and from the local community that will take part in the program. The 2011 courses were coordinated and taught by Bryan Bell and Barbara Brown Wilson, and also included a series of guest lecturers.

Research-oriented Seminar

In the seminar course, students gain an understanding of how to evaluate, analyze, and integrate public design theory and practice. Topics include: critical assessment of service-learning, design / build project process, survey of public architecture, systems approaches to design thinking, bio-regional design, project management, civic environmentalism, and measuring results.

Service-Oriented Practicum

In the practicum course, students explore built forms through design/build projects. The design/build portion of the program will include intensive work which will comprise a large portion of the summer program. Students lead a series of discussions between various community members while constructing small-scale projects in Austin. Topics include: engaging the public through a design process, educating the public on the value of design, construction, detailing, and materiality.

NEW Externship Opportunity

A new addition to the 2012 PID Program will be ten student externship positions!

This year ten talented students will travel to San Francisco and take part in a new phase of the Public Interest Design Program: a two-week externship. Accepted applicants will work with John Peterson and the San Francisco-based nonprofit he founded, Public Architecture, to write a critical professional report that documents the community impact of public interest design projects in the Bay Area.

The aim of this externship is to place students in groups of two within San Francisco Bay Area-based architectural firms, and for each team to study a different built project. Students will conduct research and work with professionals and local community members in order to create detailed reports that analyze and quantify the social, environmental, and economic impacts of built projects in the area. Students will meet as a group in Public Architecture’s office at least once each week.

Accepted applicants will take part in the PID Summer Program in Austin, and will travel to the Bay Area for two weeks in order to conduct intensive project research during the design-build portion of the program. Upon their return to Austin, externship students will complete their professional and comprehensive reports, summarizing their findings with faculty review. These reports will serve as models for assessing the social impact of design, as does the SEED Certification Process.

Notes:
  • Funding is available for accepted applicants to help pay for travel expenses and accommodations.
  • Due to the limited number of student externship positions, admission is competitive. Please carefully complete your application, paying special attention to the writing requirements.
  • The application for the externship opportunity is separate from the Public Interest Design Program; you must fill out both applications to be considered.
  • Students who are interested in only taking part in the PID Summer Program are not required to apply for the Externship Opportunity.

    • A successful candidate for an externship position will be:

  • Highly motivated and interested in public interest design.
  • Interested in conducting research, interviews, and site visits.
  • Able to communicate ideas in writing. Able to communicate ideas graphically is a plus, but not necessary.
  • Able to create professional-quality reports.

    • Design/Build Projects

    Click here for a detailed report of the 2011 projects.

    Key Dates