LEARNING BY DESIGN - SWC Students displayed their best Architectural designs at this years Archotberfest. PHOTO BY Chelsea Pelayo

LEARNING BY DESIGN – SWC students displayed their best architectural designs at this year’s Archtoberfest. PHOTO BY Chelsea Pelayo

When the leaves change to their autumnal shades and the brisker winds are scented with cinnamon and allspice it is hard to say that October had little appeal to the senses. But here in San Diego, October was the chance for architects, designers and sustainability pioneers to attract the senses of the general public. Through a month long series of seminars, exhibits and tours all over the city, October 2016 was the 4th annual home of the architecture and design celebration, Archtoberfest.

SWC Assistant Professor Diana de la Torre collaborated with the architectural club and the American Institute of Architects San Diego Chapter to bring the organization onto SWC campus. De la Torre mentioned that there was some difficulty bringing the event to SWC.

“Last year (AIA) couldn’t get the funds. This year the support from the school, administrators and faculty made it a possibility for this year. This is the first year we get to do it and I am very excited about it,” she said.

SWC got the chance to participate and was one of the 30 sponsors at the festival. The Architecture Club organized guest lectures from two well renowned local San Diego architects who presented their projects and explained their philosophy on design. The event also showcased the result of the Canstruction fundraiser that made use of donated cans to create a Pokemon themed 3-D structures. Those cans were then donated to the new food pantry on campus. The Canstruction design was displayed in the 700 building gallery that presented architecture and design student work including an outdoor display of the competition design entry that won the architecture first place at a competition in Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last year.

“Every year Cal Poly San Luis Obispo hosts a Design Village competition, they give us a theme and students design and build a structure they have to sleep in for two nights,” said De La Torre.

Last year the architecture club took the first prize home and the winning entry “Molokai” was displayed on the lawn outside of the SWC student gallery.

However one question still remains: what exactly does the month of October and architectural design have in common? According to the official website, “Archtoberfest” is a play on San Diego’s celebrated emergence as America’s newest craft-brewing capital – leading both to robust investment in new facilities and increased destination travel to the region.”

San Diego’s craft beer boom has earned the city national recognition as “the country’s craft beer capital,” according to San Diego Magazine. This national spotlight has also made San Diego a tourist mecca for craft brew aficionados looking to experience what all the hype is about. With all of this new incoming attention the Archtoberfest’s ambition is to call to action to the designers and creative “whole-brainers” in the city looking to help the cause to transform the aesthetic of the city.

“Our city needs help,” said Joseph Martinez, architect and co-founder of the Martinez Cutri firm located in downtown San Diego and one of Archtoberfest’s guest speakers. Martinez explained that there is a need to transform the city, to start paying special attention to the walls of the

urban environment that shape our city’s character. At Archtoberfest he shared his philosophy on the way he wants to approach a potential redesign project aimed at revitalizing the city’s image.

“One of the things I want to capture is what is it like to have performance as the language of architecture,” he said.

Martinez is currently working on a renovation project of a historical building in the Downtown area on C Street. He told students that he draws inspiration from major cities such as San Francisco, Portland and Austin to see how they have found ways to incorporate the city’s urban structure to accommodate a livelier and more vibrant downtown. Martinez has an interdisciplinary vision on how to design a unique city design that entails combining  “multiple interests, artistic expression and performance.”

Martinez, however, also explained to the students that San Diego city officials often thwart these plans. He, and many other architects, often run into ordinance dictated limitations he said.

“They’ll say ‘well we just don’t do that. There’s nothing like this in our city,’” he said.

Yet Martinez displayed a creative architectural spirit that is not easily broken and imparted this bit of wisdom to the aspiring architecture students at the seminar.

“Be confident, and I’m not necessarily saying be assertive or aggressive, but have good self esteem with what you are proposing because if you don’t believe it how is someone else going to believe it?”