Deaf architect joins KDES students for building project kick-off

Chris Hoffmann (right), a deaf architect with the architectural firm Wisnwski Blair & Associates, visited with KDES students to discuss the math-related tools he uses on the job.

By Susan M. Flanigan

Sometimes the math skills learned in a classroom can seem far removed from any kind of real-world application. Who uses area, perimeter, volume, and measurement, anyway? How about every architect who designed a building like the one you’re sitting in right now?

To inspire a group of KDES sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students, their math teachers invited deaf architect Chris Hoffmann from the commercial architectural firm Wisnewski Blair & Associates to meet them. The September 11 visit marked the kick-off of their semester-long model building project to link practical math skills to a real product.

Hoffmann shared with the students that he uses some of the same concepts they study in the classroom every day on the job. He encouraged them to look at buildings around them and to recognize that the knowledge of math made them possible. Hoffman began his presentation with a dynamic PowerPoint display with photos of famous architects from around the world and their buildings that have inspired him in his work. The students especially enjoyed the uplifting bird wing design of the Eero Saarinen airport terminal building at Dulles Airport, the bright blocks of color Le Corbusier included in his house designs, and the fanciful overlapping metal roof panels of Frank Gehry’s Disney building in California.

Hoffmann gathered the students around a generic building model and demonstrated some of the tools architects use, such as computer-generated site plans from different perspectives, blueprints, and scale drawings. Students were intrigued with the triangular architectural scale ruler used to “scale up” from model dimensions to actual building measurements.

Each of the students will produce a building model over the course of the semester. Through the use of project-based learning, the students will combine reading, writing, and math skills with teamwork, problem solving, research, time management, and information gathering.

“This approach encourages independent thinking, with the student taking the lead while the teachers provide guidance and encouragement on the side,” said teacher Holly McBride. “We’re using a model building project to challenge the students to approach the project like an architect. They will develop written plans, scale drawings, and build an actual model. Chris Hoffman’s visit inspired our students to want to try out their own design skills,” she said.

McBride, teachers Anna Rice and Charity Ward, and the students invited Hoffmann to come back at the end of the semester to see their work, and he enthusiastically accepted.