Summer High School Intensive in Classical Architecture

Overview

The Benedictine College Architecture Program is excited to offer a 12-day Intensive in Classical Architecture to showcase its unique design approach. Under personal instruction by the director of the Architecture Program, high school students have the opportunity to experience the energy of a program that accepts that classic architectural design remains the most viable—even necessary—foundation for the recovery of a vast range of traditional modes and patterns of living. Traditional and classical building designs naturally appeal to us because they are not just sustainable, they are based on an ordered philosophy of nature, natural law, and the idea that humans are contingent material and spiritual beings created in the image of God.

Lectures and studio assignments reinforce the continuity of architectural principles from ancient Egypt to the cultures of classical Greece and Rome, through the rise of Christianity, and into the early decades of the twentieth-century. At a Catholic college our journey through Tradition historically begins with a fiat rather than a non servium. To that order, students will be shown how to research precedent and emulate the character of paradigmatic buildings of western civilization. They will observe the time-honored intersection of architecture and the Transcendentals (such as Truth, Goodness, and Beauty).

This pre-college workshop is designed for current and graduating high school students who seek an introduction to, then immersion in, various aspects of classical architectural training. This is a rigorous program with the aim of preparing students for the future challenges of architecture school.

Highlights

• Students live in residence halls on the campus of Benedictine College and learn to navigate the beautiful campus and the public areas of historic St. Benedict’s Abbey; they are introduced to the full experience of Benedictine College and its four pillars: Catholic, Benedictine, Liberal Arts, & Residential
• The curriculum is structured around a classical design studio; studio work is complemented by lectures and walks around campus, the abbey lands, and the city of Atchison
• Coursework is taught by Benedictine College faculty, alumni, and current architecture majors—all of whom are active in the field of classical and traditional design, teaching, and scholarship
• Students are introduced to hand-drafting, field-sketching, the elements of composition with the classical genres of architecture, proportion, precedent study, and theory and history of architecture
• The program culminates in a studio project—presented at an appropriate scope for the students’ development; the final project employs the classical canon for the design of a small pavilion, including orthographic drawings and a rendered detail and/or façade perspective
• The final project will be reviewed by guest architects, followed by a closing lunch reception on Saturday the 16th for extended family members—please consider remaining in Atchison for a local summer tradition, the Amelia Earhart Festival, a popular annual Fri-Sat event in July (book early)