AIASF | Kids Draw Architecture: Sketch + Tour
Free + Open to the Public | Suggested Donation: $10
Make it a fun-filled, educational family day!
Draw: Advanced registration is requested so that we may have ample art supplies on hand. Kids will be able to meet architects and other artists who will guide them with inspirations. There will be on-site check-in available — all are welcome to participate and make it a family day! Participants will be divided into small groups led by an architect who will guide an exercise on the significance of sketching.
Tour: Parents (and kids) who would like to participate will be treated to a private architectural tour of the David Bushnell Center for Athletics & Community led by Richard Parker, AIA, LEED, Principal of 450 Architects.
9:30 AM
Check-in / Registration opens
10:00 AM
Welcome Remarks / Introductions
10:30 AM
Sketching sessions begins
12:00 PM
Break
12:30 PM
Architectural tour of David Bushnell Center for Athletics and Community led by Richard Parker, AIA, LEED 450 Architects
1:00 PM
Sketch + Share exhibitions
2:00 PM
Closing Remarks
The American Institute of Architects, San Francisco (AIASF) in collaboration with the Center for Architecture + Design is hosting this free event at the San Francisco Waldorf High School | David Bushnell Center for Athletics & Community. We invite kids of all ages to attend and learn about architecture and landscape architecture while honing their creative skills.
This educational program was originally created in 1988 by the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara ‐ AIASB’s “sister organization” to both connect architects as well as landscape architects with children and their parents and to acquire appreciation for landscape, architecture and the built environment. Now after almost 30 years and much success, “Kids Draw Architecture” is now being offered at a state‐wide level.
As architects, sketching is a necessary component of the thought process. But sketching, and art in general, is important for many reasons, and affects how the brain thinks—compartmentalizes, and sees the world. Sketching allows one to focus and see things previously unnoticed in the built environment. The result is a better understanding of the various aspects of architecture and landscape architecture – functionality, artistry and importance and demonstrates to our youth that sketching is an imperative honed skill, and that architecture is a functional art.
We invite all to bring your creativity and your curiosity and come sketch with the architects!
Sketch Leaders
Richard Parker, AIA, LEED Principal, 450 Architects
Richard has more than thirty years of experience providing comprehensive architectural design services. As principal and co-founder of 450 architects, Richard has been responsible for design and project management on a diverse range of projects and has extensive experience leading neighborhood community design workshops. Richard advocates for changes to state and local building codes to facilitate green building, social and environmental justice, and received the SAFE-BIDCO 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year Award and Certificate of Recognition from the California State Assembly. He lectured at the 2005 World Environment Day and 2007 Dwell on Design conferences and has written articles on sustainable building for the San Francisco Business Times and Green Home Guide’s “Ask an Expert” series. He volunteers his time with non-profit groups including Education Outside (formerly the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance), San Francisco Urban Agriculture Association, the Youth Leadership Project for a Sustainable Future, The Local Investment in Child Care Project, and has mentored youth through the Architectural Foundation of San Francisco. Currently, he serves on the Advisory Board of Directors for the California Academy of Science’s Teacher Institute for Science and Sustainability (TISS) and the International Schoolyard Alliance. Richard has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and is a licensed architect in California.
Henry Gao, Gao Design
Henry is a San Francisco-based architectural designer, illustrator, artist, and photographer. He take every bit of inspiration from his childhood into his everyday work. He doesn’t just design spaces – he tell stories through them. He started sketching when he was 6 years old. When his parents saw that he could do more than stick figures, they began taking him out to architectural significant sites in China. He’d spend half and full days just sitting out there with his big sketchbook. He’d mesmerized by their proportion, symmetry, and details, and most importantly, how he felt every time he looked up. Whether he’s designing a project for a client or filming educational videos for the architectural community, there is nothing else that feels more like home for Henry.
Douglas Wittnebel, AIA IIDA LEED AP BD+C
As a practicing architect, one of my prime means of communication is with on demand sketching and design drawing. With the immediacy of the sketch and the drawing comes the slow increase of delight as the sketch is created, line by line, dash and dot, hatch and scribble. This feeling of delight comes from the sensation of the mind and hand working together in tandem, and can be described as a feeling of “in the flow” calm at times and of frenzied energy at other times. The action of drawing on paper, on a wall, or on a digital tablet are all a part of the creative process of the engagement of the hand and the mind in a very cool flow of energy from within to without and on to the receptive surface. I am always prepared to investigate ideas and problems through many varieties of drawing and painting techniques, and I am at the ready to encourage the guesses and the attempts that will allow me to see all of the other possibilities that lie within a scenario or a problem. When you draw, your sensibilities awaken to the other layers and the understanding of the problem gets denser and richer and links to other real and imagined realms.
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