Rick Sommerfeld leads the design-build program at the Colorado Building Workshop at the University of Colorado Denver. He will join the FA CTU as a Fulbright Specialist in April. His lecture will be held on April 11, 2024 at 6 pm at FA CTU in Room 155 Gočár Auditorium.
Sommerfeld will co-moderate the student research conference School of Architecture 2024: With Head and Hands, which will be held at the FA on April 12 and will focus on teaching design-build projects in architecture schools.
Since founding the Colorado Building Workshop in 2009, Rick Sommerfeld and his students have designed and built more than 50 buildings. These include affordable housing in the desert, national park infrastructure, worker housing, and a field station on a nearly inaccessible island in Antarctica. The projects have been published globally and have won numerous awards, including international ones.
Sommerfeld's pedagogical vision for design-build focuses on integrated project delivery. This requires students to work closely with engineers and consultants in the earliest stages of design, testing their ideas against the constraints imposed by context and program. They believe that this form of learning enriches architectural education, enhances the application of architectural theory, and promotes a combination of practical skills and authentic learning.
