Building Impact
Architecture projects teach students hands-on skills while solving real-world problems
By Meg Whalen
Photos by Ryan Honeyman & Toby Shearer
In 2017, architecture associate professor Marc Manack took a studio of graduate students to Chicago to help spur community dialogue about housing insecurity.
“We designed a temporary installation to raise issues around public housing, development and gentrification,” Manack said.
Over two weeks, the student team constructed their installation on four different sites in Chicago, returning in October to make a public presentation on their work during the Chicago Architecture Biennial and to install their structure in Chicago’s National Public Housing Museum for an exhibition that explored housing as a human right.
Built in 2019-20, The People’s Porch is a public gathering space on Charlotte’s west side
Manack had just completed his first academic year at UNC Charlotte, but he was already thrusting students into real-world settings to design and build structures that bring them into contact with tools, materials, physical space, and the expectations of external clients. In the ensuing six years, through seminars like “Good Fast Cheap” and summer graduate studios, his students have provided improvements to an old brick commercial building in Salisbury, built a covered pavilion on Charlotte’s west side, installed a play structure for a neighborhood park in northwest Charlotte, and constructed a “beacon” for the new Trailhead Arts District in east Charlotte.
“I’m an architect first, and as an architect, I want to build and make an impact on communities,” he said. “There’s no better challenge than trying to realize something you designed. Just the act of trying to make something is a lesson in and of itself. It takes a different level of commitment.”
TACKLING AFFORDABLE HOUSING
This spring, students were engaged in perhaps their most complicated design/build project yet: a prototype accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, that they hope will simultaneously provide an affordable place for someone to live and an income stream for a low-income property owner. The project is a response to a request from Warren Wooten, assistant director for affordable housing at the city of Charlotte, who approached Manack with a challenge for his students.
“Building connections between the University and local government is really good for cross-pollinating ideas and getting the best out of both institutions,” said Wooten, who is enrolled in the Ph.D. program in public policy at UNC Charlotte.
Wooten and Manack developed an assignment for Manack’s 2022 summer graduate studios in which students would design ADUs specifically for two Charlotte neighborhoods: Hidden Valley and Washington Heights.
ADUs are “one of the tools in the kit to address the affordable housing crisis,” said Manack. “Low-income homeowners are sitting on a lot of value, but they face displacement. ADUs can provide rental income to help mitigate expenses associated with being a longterm resident in a gentrifying neighborhood.”
The students divided into teams and over the course of two summer sessions, came up with three different small house designs based on the chosen neighborhoods.
“This was my first dive into designing with other students,” said Constanza Gonzalez Villarroel. “That was really a learning experience for all three of us. We had to work to each person’s strengths.”
UNC Charlotte students created three different small house designs based on the chosen neighborhoods, Hidden Valley and Washington Heights.
At the end of the summer, the students presented their designs to Wooten and his colleagues.
“I was really impressed with how seriously they took the project, how well they worked in teams and how receptive they were to feedback,” he said. “We were all really pleased with the designs. I thought their ideas were innovative and clever.”
Wooten said that the city is creating an “ADU playbook” that will include the students’ plans, which he hopes will give neighborhood residents “an option to use those plans in the future.” In the meantime, Manack and a new class of students are building a modified version of an ADU design as an actual prototype. Gonzalez, one of several summer students who also enrolled in this seminar, is excited to see the design concept come to life.
“A lot of students struggle with actually visualizing what our designs look like in the actual world — what eight feet feels like,” she said.
UNC Charlotte students work on “Mending Fences,” a design/build project for the city of Salisbury that was funded by the city’s BlockWork grant program.
BUILDING PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS
Manack said that the “build” part of design/build projects is crucial to an architectural education. “More than swinging a hammer, it teaches them how to problem solve in real time. It teaches them respect for the trades, for the contractors. It teaches them collaboration.”
Amelia Gates ’21, who is now in graduate school at Yale University, helped design and build “The People’s Porch” pavilion in west Charlotte.
“Marc’s an amazing professor. He does not sugarcoat things at all. He gives the hard truth, which is important. He’s open and honest about the process. And he’s very encouraging.”
Gates said that throughout the pavilion’s construction and at the ribbon cutting, there was a true connection with neighborhood residents.
“Marc really wanted to know the community and have us know the community as well.”
For Manack, the public interest work that he and the students do is part of the larger responsibility that the University has to the civic landscape.
“I see Charlotte, the city itself, as a design project. These things we build are contributing to its development and are a lasting presence for the school in the community.”
Meg Whalen is director of communications for the College of Arts + Architecture
Building Impact
Architecture projects teach students hands-on skills while solving real-world problems
By Meg Whalen
Photos by Ryan Honeyman & Toby Shearer
In 2017, architecture associate professor Marc Manack took a studio of graduate students to Chicago to help spur community dialogue about housing insecurity.
“We designed a temporary installation to raise issues around public housing, development and gentrification,” Manack said.
Over two weeks, the student team constructed their installation on four different sites in Chicago, returning in October to make a public presentation on their work during the Chicago Architecture Biennial and to install their structure in Chicago’s National Public Housing Museum for an exhibition that explored housing as a human right.
Built in 2019-20, The People’s Porch is a public gathering space on Charlotte’s west side
Manack had just completed his first academic year at UNC Charlotte, but he was already thrusting students into real-world settings to design and build structures that bring them into contact with tools, materials, physical space, and the expectations of external clients. In the ensuing six years, through seminars like “Good Fast Cheap” and summer graduate studios, his students have provided improvements to an old brick commercial building in Salisbury, built a covered pavilion on Charlotte’s west side, installed a play structure for a neighborhood park in northwest Charlotte, and constructed a “beacon” for the new Trailhead Arts District in east Charlotte.
“I’m an architect first, and as an architect, I want to build and make an impact on communities,” he said. “There’s no better challenge than trying to realize something you designed. Just the act of trying to make something is a lesson in and of itself. It takes a different level of commitment.”
“I see Charlotte, the city itself, as a design project. These things we build are contributing to its development and are a lasting presence for the school in the community.”
TACKLING AFFORDABLE HOUSING
This spring, students were engaged in perhaps their most complicated design/build project yet: a prototype accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, that they hope will simultaneously provide an affordable place for someone to live and an income stream for a low-income property owner. The project is a response to a request from Warren Wooten, assistant director for affordable housing at the city of Charlotte, who approached Manack with a challenge for his students.
“Building connections between the University and local government is really good for cross-pollinating ideas and getting the best out of both institutions,” said Wooten, who is enrolled in the Ph.D. program in public policy at UNC Charlotte.
Wooten and Manack developed an assignment for Manack’s 2022 summer graduate studios in which students would design ADUs specifically for two Charlotte neighborhoods: Hidden Valley and Washington Heights.
ADUs are “one of the tools in the kit to address the affordable housing crisis,” said Manack. “Low-income homeowners are sitting on a lot of value, but they face displacement. ADUs can provide rental income to help mitigate expenses associated with being a longterm resident in a gentrifying neighborhood.”
The students divided into teams and over the course of two summer sessions, came up with three different small house designs based on the chosen neighborhoods.
“This was my first dive into designing with other students,” said Constanza Gonzalez Villarroel. “That was really a learning experience for all three of us. We had to work to each person’s strengths.”
UNC Charlotte students created three different small house designs based on the chosen neighborhoods, Hidden Valley and Washington Heights.
At the end of the summer, the students presented their designs to Wooten and his colleagues.
“I was really impressed with how seriously they took the project, how well they worked in teams and how receptive they were to feedback,” he said. “We were all really pleased with the designs. I thought their ideas were innovative and clever.”
Wooten said that the city is creating an “ADU playbook” that will include the students’ plans, which he hopes will give neighborhood residents “an option to use those plans in the future.” In the meantime, Manack and a new class of students are building a modified version of an ADU design as an actual prototype. Gonzalez, one of several summer students who also enrolled in this seminar, is excited to see the design concept come to life.
“A lot of students struggle with actually visualizing what our designs look like in the actual world — what eight feet feels like,” she said.
UNC Charlotte students work on “Mending Fences,” a design/build project for the city of Salisbury that was funded by the city’s BlockWork grant program.
“Marc’s an amazing professor. He does not sugarcoat things at all. He gives the hard truth, which is important. He’s open and honest about the process. And he’s very encouraging.”
BUILDING PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS
Manack said that the “build” part of design/build projects is crucial to an architectural education. “More than swinging a hammer, it teaches them how to problem solve in real time. It teaches them respect for the trades, for the contractors. It teaches them collaboration.”
Amelia Gates ’21, who is now in graduate school at Yale University, helped design and build “The People’s Porch” pavilion in west Charlotte.
“Marc’s an amazing professor. He does not sugarcoat things at all. He gives the hard truth, which is important. He’s open and honest about the process. And he’s very encouraging.”
Gates said that throughout the pavilion’s construction and at the ribbon cutting, there was a true connection with neighborhood residents.
“Marc really wanted to know the community and have us know the community as well.”
For Manack, the public interest work that he and the students do is part of the larger responsibility that the University has to the civic landscape.
“I see Charlotte, the city itself, as a design project. These things we build are contributing to its development and are a lasting presence for the school in the community.”
Meg Whalen is director of communications for the College of Arts + Architecture