Bruce Wrightsman Presents 'Durable Knowledge' Lecture on Feb. 6

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Bruce Wrightsman was a co-recipient of a 2009-10 ACSA Collaborative Practice Award for his work on this Trailer Wrap project in Boulder, Colo.

Bruce Wrightsman will present the lecture “Building a Durable Knowledge” at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 6 at Hembree Auditorium, in the Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences Building, on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.

Wrightsman is an assistant professor at the School of Architecture at Montana State University. He has more than 15 years of experience as a registered architect in multiple states throughout the Midwest, where his projects have won various design awards. He has extensive design/build experience and was a co-recipient of a 2009-10 ACSA Collaborative Practice Award for his work on the Trailer Wrap project in Boulder, Colo. Most recently, his Hyalite Pavilion design/build project in the Gallatin National Forest in Montana won a 2010 AIA Montana Honor Award.

His research focus is the critical investigation of traditional and emerging building practices with an emphasis on lightweight building systems and reducing the environmental footprint during the construction process. He has incorporated much of this research into his design studio teaching and his architectural structures course, in which students design and build full-scale lightweight portable footbridges to meet various structural and sustainable criteria.

Artist Donald Judd formulated the term “durable knowledge,” which is a clear awareness of facts arrived through an intense observational and constructive effort, creating a physical structure through the tactility of the hand. This hands-on experience helps one arrive at a ‘durable knowledge’ of the subject matter. 

As an architect and educator, Wrightsman has found the practice of building to be an effective strategy for architecture students to learn a broad range of design and real-world issues. In the spirit of learning, the “what” that is finally realized is only part of the benefit. Often the challenging, exciting and sometime even hilarious narratives of “how,” which are unique to hands-on projects, become the most valuable learning.

Wrightsman will present a series of projects, demonstrating a range of strategies and the stories behind them, which tell of the unique challenges for these types of hands-on learning projects and his commitment to “building a durable knowledge.”

This lecture is part of the 2011-12 series from the Fay Jones School of Architecture.