ABSTRACT
Engagement with the community—designing a food stand, planning a temporary curbside park, helping a church or a school envision a future addition, designing a pavilion for a local park—these are opportunities to conduct research that has civic body, the presence of a physical social commitment, an addition to the local urban culture. This variation of research constitutes service/scholarship, which contributes directly to the welfare and wellbeing of the community. Unlike most research, community engagement has specific value that can be measured in the market place and used as “good-will dollars” that benefit the academic institution. Service/scholarship is often the precursor for professional interaction by architects and other design disciplines; it sets a vision.
