Salukitecture: AIAS| Forum 2011

By Robert Musial

I have been an AIAS member since my first year in architecture school. I have not became an active member till I went to my first nation conference (forum) during my second year of architecture. Forum is a 4-5 day national conference that take place over New Year’s Eve. AIAS students from around the nation travel to attend forum. My first forum was 2011: Solutions held in Phoenix Arizona. At forum I have learned the importance of AIAS and the true value of it. At forum they have architectural charrettes and tours throughout the day. In the evening there is a keynote speaker and at night there is some kind of social event to meet student from other schools. One of my favorite tours while I was in Phoenix was Arcosanti. Arcosanti is actually located in Yavapai County, Central Arizona, about 70 miles north of Phoenix. Arcosanti was created by famous Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri. He believen that architecture and ecology should be used together. This is where he created Arcosanti, a town on the cliff side in the desert of Arizona. The idea is that’s town have everything it needs on this cliff side from food, housing, entertainment and etc. The community is able to survive off each other and their natural environment. As of right now only volunteers are currently living there. The volunteers continue on building to Arcosanti. Photos of Arcosanti will be included. The next tour I went on was West Taliesin. West Taliesin was Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter residence in Scottsdale, Arizona. Today it is used for the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture main campus. It was interesting to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s dwelling from seeing his bedroom to his studio was amazing. What I found even more amazing was the single person shelters the master’s students built out in the desert. These shelters were the master’s student’s final project. They also stated that often students would live in the shelter till they have found a professional job which I found neat. I will also include pictures from West Taliesin. Next, one of my favorite keynote speakers were Brad Lancaster, he spoke about how we can harvest rain water to create landscape of trees and plants rather than having that water go to waste into the sewage system. This is Brad Lancaster website if you want more information about harvesting water www.harvestingrainwater.com. The last time were the social event, we had ring in the new years in a renovated warehouse that display different kind of art work. The best thing was socializing with different students from around the country. I have spoken to other students about architecture, school, studio, projects and life. It was awesome to hear different experience of students and how they have approach a project or problem. I believe that AIAS had made a better architecture student.