Introduction

The academic design-build studio supports the idea that building, making and designing are intrinsic to each other: knowledge of one strengthens and informs the expression of the other. Many design-build studios choose to focus their efforts on aiding people and communities in need, highlighting how architecture has the potential to provide real solutions to society's troubles. Design-build necessitates an in-depth focus on material choices and building methods. The nature of the design-build studio moves beyond traditional intellectual exploration, hovering between academic and professional realities. The combination of client and budget realities in the design-build studio gives students the opportunity to understand the power that architecture can have on the world. The design-build studio supports the belief of making through thinking and thinking through making. In a world where digital screens dominate much of the mundane work environment, many academic settings are driving the process of physical making toward extinction.