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DesignBuildBLUFF is a program for graduate students to realize architecture that nurtures the spirit and improves the lives of all who experience it.

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What I did over summer vacation

By Mitch McComb

At 6:30 AM it’s already hot. The sun has barely cleared the sandstone bluffs and yet it blazes across the back porch. My sunburned back aches as I climb into the truck and start the 20-minute drive that will take us to the site.

The Bluff experience is about learning architecture as much as it is about the recognition of another culture. It is also about creating something you believe in, a work you care about, for someone who needs and deserves it. It is a cliché, but these are the things that I remember: the hard work, exhausting moments, the relief at being finished after each day.

Beyond these, the most successful aspects of our work in Bluff were those that were actually not so successful, the frustrations of a non-cliché reality. I learned most from the concrete bond beam that was poured too dry and eventually resembled mouse-chewed Styrofoam, the water system that leaks more than it delivers, and the frequent inter-group disputes.What I have taken from these experiences is an enlightening realization that nothing ever turns out as expected. Which is an important lesson for any student to learn.

Often, it seems that at the times when my educational career has not been distracted by expectations of perfection, it is filled with the inevitable insecurity that comes with the failure of attaining the goal. In Bluff, effort and intention was enough to achieve success. Without the intense pressure and criticism of a typical studio, we were left alone to figure out what to do, what could work, and what couldn’t. Our greatest accomplishment was that we actually tried something, the eventual result of which mattered less than the initial effort. Acceptance of the inevitable outcome became only an affirmation of the process of creation.

At times I have come to question my architectural education. Frequently, it seems as if the goal of the process is to dissuade me from a future as an architect and to associate insecurity with the active pursuit of the profession. Many times, I am asked to swap the simple and beautiful realities of life for the richness of conceptual complexity. I am glad that Bluff has been a part of my education, as it taught me about what architecture can really be, the active involvement of creating a new world, and the easy acceptance and enjoyment of that simple task. Bluff has taught me what architecture can be.