Architecture is part of our cultural heritage. For that reason it is important to understand why and how architects and non-architects have designed the way they did and why buildings look and function the way that they do. In these contentious times, it becomes more and more important to study styles of architecture and construction that are the products of marginalized and disenfranchised peoples in order to recognize the significance of their lives and aspirations in order to bring their history into mainstream culture. 

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Currently, architecture students are often encouraged to develop original metaphors that require extensive explanation as the basis for their designs. This turns architecture into a medium of communication requiring interpretation rather than simple appreciation. This studio focused instead on architecture as "good" building and the necessary attention to detail that is part of this tradition. The good buildings that result from such practices do not require interpretation. They are immediately recognizable as beautiful. At this point in our cultural history, an extension of (not a return to) such thinking just might be the most important thing we can do. 

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This studio allowed students to practice the craft of designing and the craft of building through understanding wood frame construction, in the context of the southern shotgun house, designed in the service of beauty.