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Thinking
While Doing:
Explorations in Educational Design/Build

Birkhäuser
Basel

Stephen Verderber
Ted Cavanagh
Arlene Oak
(Eds.)
For every student who has worked on
a design/build project while in
architecture school
Table of Contents
Foreword 7
Richard Harris

Acknowledgements 13

1 Introduction 17
Ted Cavanagh, Stephen Verderber
and Arlene Oak

5 Care Ethics in Educational 101

2 Territories of Educational 29 Design/Build
Design/Build Kaitlin Sibbald and Melanie Frappier
Stephen Verderber

6 The Social Epistemology of Thinking 111

3 History and Theory of Gridshell 47 While Making Architecture
Architecture Letitia Meynell
Ramsey K. Leung

7 The Lafayette Strong Pavilion: 129

4 The Chéticamp Farmers’ Market 73 An Unhurried Building
Ted Cavanagh W. Geoff Gjertson
8 Interdisciplinary Engagement
Through Design/Build Education
Arlene Oak
9 Building as Social Medium:
Anthropological Perspectives in
Design/Build
Claire Nicholas
10 Student Perspectives in
Educational Design/Build
Stephen Verderber
161
12 The Design/Build Exchange as 249
Knowledge Transference
177 Patrick Harrop, Simon Doucet
and Stephen Verderber
13 Engineering Considerations in 263
Design/Build Education
193 Stephen Verderber Interview with
Anthony Spick and Christopher Trumble

14 Theory-Practice Hybrids: 281

11 The Sonoran Pentapus Pavilion 217 The Cape Breton Highlands
at the University of Arizona Gridshell
Christopher Trumble Ted Cavanagh

15 Reflections—A Conversation 327

Arlene Oak and Stephen Verderber

Afterword, Part I 343

Thomas J. Mouton

Afterword, Part II 349

W. Geoff Gjertson

List of Contributors 357

Illustration Credits 363

Index 369
Foreword

Foreword
The creative process begins with idea formulation, followed by an
ability to transform ideas into a finished project. Thus, for any creative
endeavour, a combination of imagination and practical skills is es-
sential. In building design, where it is virtually impossible for a single
individual to perform the entire operation of design and construction,
this combination of skills is highly complex, requiring an ability to
communicate in a specialised, sophisticated way.
To study (and teach) design in architecture, a clear understand-
ing of the design process is a prerequisite. However, construction
practitioners themselves do not always fully understand the social
and personal underpinnings of architectural creativity. For example,
in structural engineering there can be much misunderstanding of
what constitutes architectural design. Sometimes it is taken to be
only the process of sizing structural members. However, for success,
it becomes essential that the structural engineer recognise that the
design process is about far more—including choosing an appropri-
ate structural system, coordinating with specialists in architecture
and environmental design, choosing appropriate materials of con-
struction and identifying the best construction methods. As little as
15% of the structural engineer’s responsibility is analysis, and then
merely setting down a satisfactory justification in numbers. This job
requires creating a design that meets the needs of the functional brief
while working within a multifaceted team to deliver specialist skills
alongside others in achieving a successful outcome. Thus, the design
process functions as a highly fertile area of study for anthropologists, 7
sociologists, historians and philosophers.
Those who teach courses in construction science have a respon-
sibility to provide skills often associated with vocational training.
However, education in structural design must be focused on moving
beyond the development of practical skills in calculation, drawing and
modelling to also instill confidence by means of communicating an
awareness of the broader design context. This level of knowledge can
then help to drive the entire creative process with the aim of provid-
ing effective solutions to complex, multidisciplinary problems. These
solutions must not only be buildable and affordable but also provide
a physical, visible template on which the occupants of the completed
building can impose their own uses. A successful building is one that
opens up new opportunities, opportunities invariably not foreseen by
those who initially commissioned the structure or even by those who
designed the built project. Design creativity that is fully reflective of
local cultural traditions and local materiality is the catalyst for ulti-
mate success.
Much of the learning that occurs in an architecture design course
involves the student’s immersion in the design process in a studio en-
vironment. To successfully move across a sequence of studio courses
over multiple academic years requires students to demonstrate an
ability to work with increasingly demanding functional briefs as they
proceed through the curriculum. Ideally, all architectural professional
education curricula should include a Design and Make or a design/
build element, but the requisite instructional and faculty resources are
TWD

rarely earmarked to enable this. In most mainstream undergraduate

 curricula, the time required to make this type of experience available
Foreword

for every student makes it nearly impossible to incorporate full-scale

design/build projects into the coursework. Thus, the full understand-
ing of the design and construction process is invariably delivered to
the young graduate by means of tutelage under experienced practi-
tioners, post-university.
For a fortunate small number of students in architectural educa-
tion, there are a handful of institutions in the world that specialise in
design/build courses.
At the Rural Studio at Auburn University in Alabama, final-year
architecture students take two academic terms to design and build a
project for communities located in Hale County, Alabama. The Rural
Studio was founded by Samuel Mockbee, D. K. Ruth and Andrew Free-
ar, who is originally from Yorkshire, England. It is he who has directed
it since 2002. This remarkable curriculum delivers its course to fifth-
year undergraduate students, who are immersed in designing/making
real projects for real people. The built projects’ successes and failures
are apparent for all to see—some of the projects are well cared for,
and subsequently thrive, while those that do not meet the needs of
the people they are intended for become unused and derelict.
At Hooke Park in England, Andrew Freear advised his alma mater,
the Architectural Association, on the establishment of their Design and
Make Masters Course at their Woodland Campus. In these courses,
graduate students develop designs for extending the facilities of that
campus.
In Finland, Professor Pekka Heikkinen at Aalto University offers
a one-year intensive programme focusing on wood and wooden
8 architecture. His Wood Program is a unique and challenging course,
designed to attract graduate-level students (as well as recent graduate
architects with some professional practice experience). The course
deals with topics such as ecology of forests and wood; technical prop-
erties of wood; wood as a building material; centuries-old traditions in
wood building design and construction; maintenance and renovation
of wooden buildings; and modern wood-based architecture.
Only the Rural Studio, year after year, delivers large-scale design/
build courses to undergraduates, and the scale of these projects
requires time and resources beyond the constraints of a typical under-
graduate course. Months are required to achieve the construction of
a full-size building structure, and yet only days are often available
to achieve such an outcome in a normal course timeframe. To en-
able aspects of design/build to be incorporated into a more typical
undergraduate programme, the process of design needs to be more
rigorously studied so that it can be better understood in this learning
context.
Given how few large-scale design/build courses exist in the world,
the success of the multi-year Thinking While Doing (TWD) project is
both remarkable and laudable. The recording of what was achieved, in
this book, enables others to understand this process far better so they
too will be able to structure multi-year studio-based curricula well
positioned for the assessment of learning outcomes at the core of the
design/build learning experience.
A successful work of architecture requires that the structure reflect
its local conditions, climatically, materially and socio-culturally. By
TWD

utilising a multidisciplinary approach to the study of this process, the

TWD research project captured these parameters in its fundamental

Foreword
concept. The TWD project has been large, as it was a collaboration
between 10 universities in Canada and the United States. It has been
a long project, running from 2013 to 2019, and it maintained momen-
tum only achievable due to the commitment, dedication and determi-
nation of everyone involved. It is a remarkable achievement.
By structuring the project to include the Design/Build Group (dbG),
the Design/Build Exchange (dbX) and the Insight Group (IG), there has
been a clear and rational division between the design/construction
activities and the interdisciplinary study of the fundamental learning.
The dbG was led by the professors who coordinated the design and
construction of the series of gridshell pavilion structures presented
in this book. The interdisciplinary IG team of scholars was drawn from
the social sciences and humanities as well as architecture, and brought
together a sociologist, anthropologist, philosopher and historian.
Building design is a complex process. Successful buildings ad-
dress the social and material circumstances that form the context of
their geographic locale. As described by Arlene Oak in her introduc-
tion to the TWD project, in Chapter 1, the research reported here re-
flects numerous field studies and analyses on topics that include the
craft expertise, technical skill development, cross-disciplinary collab-
oration between academic institutions, the nuances of conversational
negotiation and the inner workings of knowledge transference.
In good research, the first task is to define the typology at hand.
Without this, too many random variables will needlessly blur the
results and make coherent interpretation next to impossible. To allow
the TWD interdisciplinary research-based team to carry out their
studies in a consistent, comparable manner, all of the built structures 9
were held constant to a single typology, and correctly, this decision
was made early on.
The ambitious scope of this project called for a building type that
allowed for creative expression while being of a scale and construc-
tion method attainable within the specifics of the individual briefs.
The choice of gridshell pavilions met these criteria. The five studios
reported are CS1 (Chéticamp), CS2 (Lafayette), CS3 (Arizona), CS4
(Charlotte) and CS5 (Cape Breton Highlands). Of these, four projects
were constructed, two in Canada and two in the United States. Chéti-
camp Farmers’ Market (2014–2016) is the first project and is described
in Chapter 4. The Lafayette Strong Pavilion is presented in Chapter 7,
the Sonoron Pentapus Pavilion in Tucson at the University of Arizona
in Chapter 11, and the Highlands Pavilion in Cape Breton National
Park (2016–2019) in Chapter 14.
In the first project, CS1, through the simple handling of materials,
model making and close collaboration with the structural engineers,
the team of students and their teacher were able to establish an
understanding of constraints as well as have the member sizes and
materials of construction fully endorsed. Although the building span
is small, the complexity of the process of design and construction
would be revealed by means of the essential knowledge and skill sets
acquired through practical experience. The team for this project was
small, yet it crystallised a body of expertise ready to be used to seed
the following larger projects.
In Chapter 7, the second project, CS2, subtitled “An Unhurried
TWD

Building,” was expressed as a small, highly detailed artefact. What a

 wonderful opportunity – to allow the proper time to maximise com-
Foreword

munity involvement and develop a site-specific project to satisfy a

wide range of objectives. This project was created by a team based at
the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The initial project schedule of
four months eventually extended to 18, reinforcing the need to allow
sufficient time to take in the larger process – providing the students
with an understanding that design and construction is about more
than a linear sequence of tasks. It consists of a complex web of con-
nections and communications, generating a wide range of emotional
responses from optimism to despair and back again.
The third project, CS3, departed from the others in that it was
built in steel, a material chosen in response to the harsh, arid Arizona
climate. This built project represents a significantly different design
process, providing the humanities-based researchers with an under-
standing of how the design and construction process in design/build
can lead to such different building solutions.
The fourth project built, CS5, the Highlands Pavilion in Cape Bret-
on National Park, was the second gridshell pavilion designed by the
Dalhousie University–based team, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with much
assistance from the US-based TWD faculty studio directors. The level
of ambition was raised, with the outcome a sophisticated building
carefully situated in its landscape. It also provides its users with a re-
source supportive of a wide range of activities. Together, the built TWD
structures represent an upward knowledge trajectory insofar as the
confidence of prior success fueled ambitions for increasingly larger,
more sophisticated buildings.
It is unfortunate that CS3, the third building in this series, intended
10 for a site in Charlotte, North Carolina, remains unbuilt at this writing
due to circumstances beyond the control of the TWD project team.
However, there was also something to learn from this, that not all stu-
dio-based projects proceed to a successful built outcome. Regardless,
much was learned by everyone who worked on this project.
The consistencies achieved by employing a single structural
typology made it possible to apply at each successive construction
site lessons learned from the previous case studies. Similarly, this
pre-validated and reaffirmed the structural type as viable in a wide
variety of site and climatic contexts. The systematic accumulation of
deeper understandings and skills required to work with this structural
typology is well documented in this book. This fueled the increasingly
progressive upward ambitions of each built project.
Forms were chosen that were capable of delivering the require-
ments particular to each site and building use. Studies conducted in
each case enabled the students to acquire an understanding of how
their building would sit in its landscape and the structural system
that would best resist wind forces, which, for lightweight structures,
is invariably the most severe loading condition. The design process
progressed through studies of material palettes most appropriate to
the locality, and the most appropriate details of construction. Physical
scale models were built to acquire an understanding of the engineer-
ing principles at work. Once the design was formulated, construction
logistics were studied, materials procured, personnel mobilised and
construction undertaken.
The same procedure was replicated by each university–based
TWD

student team on each of the constructed projects. As this occurred,

the humanities and social science-based researchers observed and

Foreword
documented this process at each of the five institutions, capturing the
actions and thoughts of participants as the five project teams various-
ly created progressively more complex building forms. The relevance
of this research reaches beyond the immediate architectural teaching/
learning environment into the realm of allowing the layperson a deep-
er understanding of the design process more generally. Through these
multidisciplinary investigations of the live process, the complexity of
design itself is revealed and set down in this book. The results will be
of benefit to both teachers of design and also practitioners.
In the contemporary world of competitive design bids and con-
stant pressures to cut costs, there is a tendency for design to be taken
for granted as a mere series of tasks to be optimised as a means to
reduce construction costs. As a matter of fact, however, the com-
plexities of the creative process require adequate time and opportu-
nity to succeed—with time provided to allow thoughts to build and
be set down, and opportunities for interdisciplinary interactions to
occur in order for solutions to mature. This book provides the reader
with insight into the design and construction process and the way in
which the design/build approach informs the university-level learning
experience, while simultaneously providing a detailed account of an
evolving architectural/structural type.
This book is an excellent account of a remarkable project.

Richard Harris
Honorary Professor
The University of Bath 11
United Kingdom

TWD
Acknowledgements
An interdisciplinary project of this scope and duration requires the
collaborative contributions of many. In the case of the Thinking While
Doing (TWD) experience, over 200 individuals have contributed to the
overall effort, spanning two countries. I would like to thank everyone
involved; perhaps this book will provide some context to frame the
larger multi-year project of which you were an important part. I dedi-
cate this book to you all.
First, the impetus for the TWD project was the straightforward and
highly effective external governmental support provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), based
in Ottawa. There, research is always a priority. SSHRC’s straightforward
reporting procedures between the TWD team leadership and home
institution (Dalhousie) allowed us to concentrate on the architectural
work at hand; this was an indispensable aid from start to finish. We
thank the president of SSHRC, Ted Hewitt. We also thank the many
people at SSHRC who consistently worked in support of our project
and in particular our main contact people: Anna Torgerson, Gianni
Rossi and Adam Yates. The partners in the project were Arlene Oak at
the University of Alberta, Robert Miller and Chris Trumble at the
University of Arizona, Ken Lambla at the University of North Carolina–
Charlotte, Geoff Gjertson at the University of Louisiana–Lafayette,
Ursula Hartig at Technische Universität Berlin and Blair Pardy at Parks
Canada. Important collaborators on the team are Greg Snyder, Letitia
Meynell, Melanie Frappier, Stephen Verderber, Patrick Harrop, Claire
Nicholas and Johanna Beth Amos. 13
Over the last six years, the TWD project was coordinated out
of Dalhousie University with the help of Alex Morier, Philippa Keri
Ovonji-odida, Jessica Wyss, Johanna Beth Amos, Matthew Timmons,
Christina MacNeil and Queena Crooker-Smith. Additionally, thanks go
out to Christine Macy, Dean of Architecture and Planning, and Diogo
Burnay, Director of the School of Architecture.
The Chéticamp Farmers’ Market: the Dalhousie University TWD
design/build team included Xan Hawes, Evan Hoyles, Nina Hitzler,
Noah Jacobson, Amanda Kemeny, Kaitlyn Labrecque, Katelyn Latham,
Megan Lloyd, John Marshall, Elijah Montez, Fraser Plaxton, Abbey
Smith, Daniel Smith and Julia Weir. The hosts at Le Conseil des
Arts included Paul Gallant, Joeleen Larade, Clarence LeLièvre, and
Stephane Sogne. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette TWD student
team consisted of Olivia Almeida, Nouf Alalushi, Richard Arcuri,
Joseph Artall, Kelly Bergeron, Jolee Bonneval, Caleb Boulet, Erika
Flowers, Joshua Floyd, Patrick Flynn, Emily Girlinghouse, Breanna
Hinton, Lavell Johnson, Khoa Le, Brooke Leblanc, Katie Leleaux,
Wendy Meche, Benjamin Magallon, Thomas Mouton, Tran Nguyen,
Michael Perry, Robert Poche, Jessica Prejean, Daniel Richard,
Christopher Rush, Sarah Simar and Adam Traweek.
Many thanks to Professor Greg Snyder and his team of TWD stu-
dents at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His dedicated
students worked over two terms to design, prototype, and fabricate
full-scale components of their fantastic gridshell structure.
The University of Arizona TWD project team consisted of Alex
TWD

Mayer, Ali Dowd, Andrew Christopher, Antoinette Escobar, Ayse Forier,

 Ben Gallegos, Christina Kukurba, Dan Jacques, Drew Cook, Ed Bilek,
Edson Pinto, Emily Cole, Jessica McQuillen, Josh Fowler, Katie Roch,
Kevin Murney, Kevin Reid, Kevin Yingst, Kyle D’Alessio, Mahmood Al
Musawi, Mathew Sprott, Prabhs Matharoo, Quan Trang, Ryan Stucka,
Sarah Brausch, Sophia Urbaez, T. Frederickson, Thong Phan, Trevor
Cordivari, Will Ruoff and Zhengchun Jiang.
The Cape Breton Highlands Gridshell: the TWD design/build team
included 115 people from many different universities. The project was
initiated in 2015 with the help of Alex Moirier, Lawrence Freisen, Tracey
Bendrien, Stephane Sogne, Cassie Burhoe, Lydia Lovett-Dietrich, and
Jessica Wyss. The design/build work that began in 2016 included:
from Dalhousie University—Alex Moirier, Philippa Keri Ovonji-odida,
Cristien Murphy, Abbey Smith, Cassie Burhoe, Emily Cassidy, Jane
Casson, Jasper Crace, Laura Day, Sarah Dede, Karl Gruenewald,Andre
Kott, Lydia Lovett-Dietrich, Josh Nieves, Andrew Nocente, Thomas
Schreiber-Costa, Xinran Tang, Valerie Chang, Yen Pang (Jim) Chou,
Connor Clark, James DeMartini, Robin Ellis, John Mella, Jody Miller,
Isaac Neufeld, Ellen Penner, Mahta Safavi-Khalifeh-Soltani, Kyle
Smith-Windsor, Adam Sparkes, Mallory Swing, Bardia Tajik, Bingyu
Sun, Jinjing Wang, Ning Xu, Jie (Amy) Zhou, James DeMartini, Ben
Harrison, and Lachlan MacDonald;
from the University of Arizona—Asher Caplan, Marco Contreras,
Kyle D’Alessio, John Georges, Jeffrey Moser and Michael Vo;
from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte—Matt Allen,
Calum Dodson, Alex Shuey and Nate White.
The design/build work continued in 2017 and included: from
Dalhousie University—Philippa Keri Ovonji-odida, Alix Lanyon-Taylor,
14 John Marshall, Abbey Smith, Jessica Wyss, Kristina Bookall, Megan
Burt, Shaili Chauhan, Liam Healy, Lucien Landry, Ruth Vandergeest,
Paryse M. Beatty, Alex Caskey, Matthew A. Gillingham, Andrew
Secco, Sumaiya B. Taher, Ning Xu, Abdullah Akram and Kimberley
Hoimyr; from the University of Arizona—Marco Contreras, Jerrick
Tsosie, Michael Hernandez, and Moshe Wilke; from the University of
North Carolina Charlotte—Alicia Foreman, Constanza Gonzalez and
Drue Stroud.
The design/build work continued in 2018 and included: from Dal-
housie University—Liam Healey, Hannah Newton, Suet Ying (Julie)
Leung, Zewei Zhang, Michael Maclean, Paulette Cameron, Kaley
Doleman, Shane Hauser, Chelsea Kinnee, Bea Casiano, Natalie Steele,
Kaling Zhang and Andrew Gilmour; from the University of Arizona—
Cameron Behning, Jerrick Tsosie, and Ellie Franzen; from the Univer-
sity of Hertfordshire—Sam Healy and Ilona Hay; from the University
of Toronto—Esther Bogorov, Peter Dowhaniuk, Oussama El-Assir,
Jeremy Keyzer, Aseel Sadat, Lucas Siemucha, Joshua Silver, Anton
Skorishchenko, Martin Drozdowski (2017), Timothy Bool and Ramsey
Leung (2016).
The sponsor/hosts at Parks Canada deserve extra special mention.
They are Blair Pardy, Kelly Deveaux and Jerry LeBlanc as does Black-
well Engineering, based in Toronto.
At the University of Toronto, the contributions of Stephen Verderber
to this book were ably assisted by Timothy Boll, Gabriel Valdivieso,
Ramsey Leung and Joshua Silver. Special thanks to Ramsey Leung for
the TWD chapter he contributed on the history of gridshell structures,
TWD

and to Joshua Silver for his editorial work and sustained

commitment in assembling the many moving parts of the TWD book
manuscript throughout 2018.
The TWD Insight project team included Simon Doucet, who worked
diligently on developing the dbX ontology while at the University of
Montreal, and more recently at the University of Waterloo. John M.
Cays, Professor and Associate Dean at the New Jersey Institute of
Technology, simultaneously served as project liaison with the Asso-
ciation of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), based in Wash-
ington, DC. Kendall Nicholson, at ACSA in Washington, James Forren
and Jean-Pierre Chupin, Ursula Hartig, working with Professor Philipp
Misselwitz at the Technische Universität Berlin, along with Peter Fat-
tinger, Simon Colwell, Sergio Palleroni and Nina Pawlicki partnered
with Dalhousie University in an Erasmus Mundi grant received from
the European Union to develop an educational design/build project
database in Europe, a database that was launched in 2017. This was
instrumental in helping develop the North American dbX, as was
the association with SEED and with Jane Anderson at Live Projects
Network.
The Insight project team contributions of Arlene Oak were assisted
by Amber Appah, Karly Coleman and Robyn Stobbs, all from the Uni-
versity of Alberta. Katie Francisco, Kylin Jensen and Bethany Kraft, all
from the University of Nebraska, assisted with the contributions
of Claire Nicholas. Jonathan Longrad assisted with the contributions
of Letitia Meynell, and Melanie Frappier collaborated with Kaitlin
Sibbald; all were based at Dalhousie University.
Lastly, and importantly, special thanks are due to our editor for the
publisher, Andreas Müller. Andreas, based in Berlin, provided expert
guidance and helpful suggestions throughout the development of 15
the manuscript.
Thank you all.

Ted Cavanagh, Ph.D.

Professor of Architecture
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada

TWD
 Introduction
Ted Cavanagh The Thinking While Doing (TWD) initiative was a comprehensive,
Stephen Verderber unprecedented investigation (2013–2019 and ongoing) that focused on
Arlene Oak the relationship between the rapidly expanding curricular area of
design/build education in schools of architecture in North America, and
the broad-based implications of this curricular area as a cultural and
social activity. Cultural and societal ramifications of the design/build
experience were examined from the perspective of the social sciences
and humanities, with attention directed to ethics, meaning, commu-
nication, understanding and performance in the context of creative
practice.The TWD initiative was international in focus, functioning as a
consortium of seven universities in Canada and the United States that
worked collaboratively to sponsor, design, document, construct and
evaluate a series of experimental structures, with each built structure
expressing local climatic determinants, social and cultural traditions
and indigenous material palettes. The TWD initiative was supported by
grants totaling $2.5M (CAD) in support of research in this specialised
area of architectural education. Three principal aims were achieved
vis-à-vis this grant. First, the establishment of an open-source design/
build exchange database/ontology. This interactive, fluid ontology
facilitates the documentation and collegial sharing of precedents in
the form of completed and ongoing design/build activities through- 17
out North America. The second major aim of the grant was to support
new avenues of inquiry on the interdisciplinary nature of educational
design/build (e-d/b) from the perspectives of the humanities and the
social sciences. The third major aim was to design and construct a se-
ries of experimental structures, representing original contributions to
the state of the art in design, engineering and fabrication of open-air
gridshell pavilion architecture.
The geographic scope of the effort was far-reaching, with faculty
members, students and staff at 10 universities collaborating on the
TWD initiative from the fall of 2013 to the spring of 2019, led by the
home institution, Dalhousie University, located in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The two Dalhousie-based e-d/b studios and built structures were the
Chéticamp Farmers’ Market (2014–2016) and the Cape Breton High-
lands Pavilion (2016–2019). Other participating Canadian universities
were Laurentian University, the University of Toronto, the University
of Alberta and the University of Montreal. Participating universities
in the United States were the University of Arizona (e-d/b studio and
built structure, 2015–2017), University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the
University of Louisiana at Lafayette (e-d/b studio and built structure,
2015–2016), New Jersey Institute of Technology and the University of
North Carolina at Charlotte (e-d/b studio, 2015–2016). The work of this
international team of institutions, educators/researchers and practi-
tioners has been presented at numerous professional and academic
conferences and events and is documented throughout the various
chapters in this book. The authors whose contributions are represented
TWD

here wish to express their gratitude for this rare opportunity to

 collaborate on what has been a most interest-
Introduction
ing and challenging undertaking—a once-in-a-
lifetime opportunity to explore and document
an important facet of university-level educa-
tion while contributing to its knowledge-base,
and the transference of this new knowledge.
This introductory chapter is presented in three
parts, each describing a co-editor’s (presented
alphabetically based on last names) motiva-
tions and aims with regards to the Thinking
While Doing research-based design experi-
ence.
Ted Cavanagh: I first became enamored
with design/build education while an un-
dergraduate architecture student at McGill
University in Montreal in the 1970s where, at
the time, there were no studios offered on the
topic. We took it on as an extra-curricular ac-
tivity on our own, completely outside of our
classes. Working in a small team, we had as
our first projects a series of five ferroconcrete
playground structures built at schools and
parks in various neighbourhoods across the
city. I worked on four of them. No professors
at McGill at the time were involved in any way
whatsoever. However, one classmate, Peter
Sijpkes, later became a professor in architec-
18 ture at McGill. Peter has over the years gone
on to design and build many structures with
his students, including ice structures. Those
of us who worked on these projects bonded
closely because they were completely ours—
of our own initiative. We built these structures
on campus, then transported them to their
sites for installation. In a way, it was a labo-
ratory-based experiment and few students
elsewhere in North America were doing
anything like it, especially completely on their
own. It was an unauthorised, guerrilla-like
design activity.
I conducted my first undergraduate de-
sign/build studio as an educator soon after
I arrived at Dalhousie University in Halifax
more than a decade after those early struc-
tures I had helped to design and build in
Montreal. The students built a full-scale sec-
tion of a building. It was called the Building
Studio. Currently at Dalhousie, the students
in the design/build studios are typically first-
year, first-term graduate students. During
that first year, in the last two weeks of July,
the whole school at Dalhousie shuts down
and everybody goes out and engages in de-
TWD
sign-build studios simultaneously.
Ten to 12 design/build studio options are
offered concurrently each summer for our
approximately 140 students. I started this
curricular tradition in 1991 and called it Free
Lab. Free Lab would be a way to expose each
and every Dalhousie architecture student to
the freedom and personal empowerment
opportunities I had experienced myself as
a student. In its current incarnation it runs
for 17 days as a three-credit course and has
become firmly enmeshed in the cultural
fabric of the architecture school, respected by
both students and faculty. While Free Lab is
interesting in many ways, only so much can
be achieved in a mere two weeks because of
the many inherent limitations in designing
and building a structure in such a short time-
frame. The aim pedagogically is to take on an
imminently buildable project. So, in a way, it
represents a continuation of the guerrilla stu-
dio projects of my past. Free Lab structures
tend to be relatively easy to design and
construct. Nonetheless, for a faculty member
directing one of these short studios, it can
take three or four months of background work
to establish the context and find a sponsor/
client for what is to be built, how it is to be
constructed, choose the material palette and
the location of deployment/construction. The
majority of the Free Lab studio builds have
been constructed in the Halifax metropolitan
area.
When we first conceived the transdisci-
plinary Thinking While Doing project in 2012,
we were not necessarily aiming to build four
or five similar projects, typologically. We had
assumed we would design and build a more
varied series of structural forms, even con-
sidering things like beginning with gridshell
forms and moving on to cable-net structures,
then perhaps into another structural type, or
even a dymaxion grid structure. Why are all
the structures gridshell pavilions? My interest
in this type of structure actually evolved over
a number of years. The lamella configurations
of the 1960s and earlier were essentially
simple structural vaults, a barrel vault where
virtually everything is repetitive. Brick vaults
are essentially catenary vaults with every-
thing in compression so the next step was
to move beyond such historical precedents.
These precedents dated from the 1920s and
slightly before, as in the case of the catenary
shell, the basic brick vaulted shell form, dating
from the late 19th Century work of Antoni
Gaudí and later Gaudinists in North America,
in Boston. These historical precursors inspired
us to move progressively into more complex
forms while remaining within a single archi-
tectural typology.
The Thinking While Doing grant our
research-based design team was awarded
from the Social Science and Humanities
Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) was
the most recent in a series of grants I had
received in the past decade on the topic of
studio-based design/build in architecture.
The first grant I received in design/build from
the SSHRC was titled Research Creation in
the Fine Arts. Soon thereafter, SSHRC ended
this program. In the interim, I decided to up
the ante, encouraged by the fact I previously
had received two modest grants from SSHRC
of about $200,000 (CAD) each, and as this
research was being featured on the SSHRC
homepage I was concurrently being invited
to sit on review panels for other SSHRC grant
submittals. I saw this as a strong indication the
agency would be receptive to our scaled-up
ambitions in the realm of humanities-based
research on design/build education in archi-
tecture.
Although my students at Dalhousie had
designed and built a lamella vault and a series
of single-vaulted structures, it was decided
from the outset, here, to be more ambitious.
This led to my seeking out collaborations with
other schools of architecture based on the
assumption this would further enhance the
educational experience for our students at
Dalhousie University and place more of
a spotlight on the pedagogical merits of inter-
institutional collaboration in design/build
education. Beyond this, I sought to push the
tectonic and formal parameters of the struc-
tures we would design and build. The goal was
to probe how innovation actually occurs both
in the studio setting as well as on the construc-
tion site, in the pursuit of better understanding
the process of creating architecture. Learning
about this process would require collaboration
with specialists in the humanities who could
observe, document and interpret the socio-
cultural, ethical and philosophical ramifica-
tions of architecture as cultural expression.
This is why the Thinking While Doing
initiative was not conceived as solely a Cana-
dian project. How did it become a joint
Canadian-American project? First, there are
Introduction
not many design-build-oriented architecture
schools in Canada. Dalhousie is among the
leading advocates of this aspect of architec-
tural education in Canada and in North Amer-
ica. This called for a search for architecture
schools known for their prior interest, experi-
ence and commitment to design/build educa-
tion in architecture. This led me to approach
the University of Arizona (Robert Miller and
Christopher Trumble), the University of Loui-
siana at Lafayette (Geoff Gjertson), where the
Acadian-Cajun historical and cultural connec-
tion resulted in a unique learning experience
for the students of both universities, and
the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
(Greg Snyder).
This cultural-academic exchange between
the United States and Canada has been
tremendous. For instance, the students in the
Louisiana design/build studio traveled to Nova
Scotia while they were actually designing
their own structure that same term in Louisi-
ana. They learned firsthand about the structure
we were then constructing at the Chéticamp
Farmers’ Market and drew from this experi-
ence in the design and construction of their
structure in Lafayette (the Strong Pavilion). 19
They learned about our design process, the
construction process, the built project and
pitfalls to avoid. By this point, the Chéticamp
gridshell was virtually complete. They brought
with them their design schematics and as-
sessed their assumptions and structural calcu-
lation software against what actually occurred
in the Chéticamp experience. At about this
same time I was traveling annually with teams
of Dalhousie students down to Louisiana. For
four years in a row I took the students across
the southeastern US, and we would spend
considerable time in Lafayette. The largest
group I brought there was 15, and we spent
a few weeks working with the local students
on their construction site in brutal Louisiana
midsummer heat and humidity.
With the $2.5M (CAD) SSHRC grant, the
initial intent was to design and build the TWD
structures in Nova Scotia in close collabo-
ration with the three American architecture
schools, beginning with the University of
Arizona, then in successive collaboration with
the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, fol-
lowed by the University of North Carolina at
TWD
Charlotte. The aim was to bring to Canada the
 other schools’ students, faculty and expertise,
Introduction
with the collaborations occurring on Canadian
soil, but the first test of this format did not
go particularly well. The project became too
large and complex too fast, and there was no
easy way to effectively coordinate the design/
construction timeline required within the limits
of the Dalhousie academic year schedule, to-
gether with the University of Arizona academic
year schedule. The Arizona academic year
started weeks earlier than Dalhousie’s, and
we therefore lost nearly an entire term of
productivity early on due to scheduling prob-
lems. While the prospect of sequencing the
involvement of three American universities
on Canadian soil remained attractive in the-
ory, it proved too complicated to effectively
implement.
We realised early that if we were to jump
from one building type to another we would
encounter a very steep learning curve,
a learning curve that could slow down or po-
tentially completely derail the entire initiative.
Type-jumping would require us all to learn
completely new types—continually—and the
grant as structured was framed largely to ex-
amine and learn from how one design-build
20 team learns and then passes its acquired
knowledge to the next team. This process of
knowledge transference was fundamental to
why we received SSHRC’s support in the first
place because, as previously mentioned, our
aim was to link the design/build experience
with the humanities to the fullest extent. So
we struck the initial goal of typological diver-
sity in favour of sticking entirely with variants
of open-air pavilion structures. Now the goal
would be to push the boundaries of a sole
building type. In deciding all five structures
would be variants within a single typology,
we allowed the interdisciplinary team new
opportunities to advance the state of the art
in ways otherwise unattainable.
The case study chapters appear in this
book chronologically, based on when they
began. Moving from one design/build studio
project to the next within a single building
type allowed for comparing/contrasting ge-
ographies, climactic variations, socio-cultural
variability, and local indigenous traditions
with regards to what is built and why, to-
gether with individual and collective broader
ramifications. The four universities where the
TWD
design/build studios were based each agreed
to build a structure locally, then join forces
on the final structure. This strategy resulted
in the design-tectonic trajectory expressed
in this book. I am grateful to everyone—and
especially for the hard work and commitment
put forth by each and every student.
Arlene Oak: The Thinking While Doing
project is structured to include the Design/
Build Group (dbG), the Design/Build Exchange
(dbX) and the Insight Group (IG). The activities
of the IG have been conducted through ongo-
ing communication with the dbG (led by the
professors who coordinated the design and
construction of the gridshell structures). The
IG is composed of scholars who work in the
social sciences and humanities, with the group
consisting of myself, a micro-sociologist who
researches the conversations that happen
during design; Claire Nicholas, an anthropol-
ogist whose research focuses on craft and
design; Letitia Meynell, a philosopher who
examines the modes of representation from
sketches to technical drawings; and Melanie
Frappier, a historian whose work focuses on
the intersection of science and technology.
While the IG also includes the architects
Stephen Verderber and Patrick Harrop, the
following comments are focused on those
IG participants who are not practitioners of
architecture but who, instead, bring the per-
spectives of the interpretive social sciences
and humanities to the study of architectural
education and the professional practice of
architecture.
The research project Thinking While
Doing: Connecting Insight to Innovation in
the Construction Sector (its official title) was
granted under the SSHRC project category
Research-Creation. As a grant-project category,
Research-Creation is important because it
recognises the importance of combining
modes of scholarship in the social sciences
and humanities. In architecture, research-
as-practice is typically undertaken autono-
mously rather than also as a topic of study
by the social sciences and humanities, while
most social science or humanities scholarship
that studies architecture does so through
the consideration of its practitioners or its
finished products—buildings and other
structures. It is fortuitous that SSHRC has
Research-Creation as a funding category,
although in reality we discovered through
the TWD project that it is not always easy to
connect architectural practice to research in

Introduction
sociology, anthropology, philosophy and his-
tory. Despite difficulties of time, distance and
different modes of working (discussed briefly
in chapter 15), the TWD project did achieve
this connection.
Within sociology, anthropology, philos-
ophy and history, there is increasing rec-
ognition that phenomena such as drawing,
materials selection and model making involve
interesting and complex translations of in-
formation from one domain to another, such
as from pencil sketch to computer model to
a wood lattice structural form. The creation
of a building is a combination of social and
material circumstances that include craft
expertise, technical skill, cross-disciplinary
collaboration, conversational negotiation and
knowledge transference. My own research ex-
amines the talk that occurs in and throughout
design practice in professional and academic/
educational contexts, such as when an archi-
tect speaks with a client, or when a design
student presents their work for critique. Such
conversations reveal on-the-ground debates,
controversies and decisions that concern, for
instance, building program, structure, mate-
rials and aesthetics. While the everyday talk 21
of designing and building reveals interesting
aspects of practice, it is usually somewhat
difficult for researchers to gain access to the
social situations where the ‘real’ activities of
designing, building and educating are taking
place. The TWD project provided opportuni-
ties to access these situations—from design
reviews to construction sites—and so enabled
the IG to collect a rich set of research mate-
rials, such as audio and visual recordings,
photographs and field notes. These research
materials have captured many moments in
the moving ‘flight’1 of each gridshell, from
sketch to finished form, and so will serve to
inform future scholarship on architecture and
design-build education.

Evolution of the Insight Group:

1. Yaneva, Albena &
Latour, Bruno (2008). Give
As noted above, the IG team members Me a Gun and I Will Make
All Buildings Move: An
explore many of the ongoing practices of ANT’s View of Architec-
architecture, such as sketches (Meynell), and ture. In Reto Geiser (ed.).
the diverse issues raised by those practices, Explorations in Architecture:
Teaching, Design, Research.
such as ethics (Frappier). Yet, also as noted
TWD

Basel: Birkhäuser.
above, it can be difficult for scholars in the pp. 80–89.
 social sciences and humanities to gain access
Introduction
to those sites of creative production where,
for instance, sketches are being sketched and
ethical dilemmas are being considered. How
did TWD’s particular blend of interdisciplin-
arity occur? It was Ted Cavanagh’s particular
background that proved to be an important
catalyst.
Ted Cavanagh has established a distin-
guished record in design/build education
and is a historian-theorist of architecture in
the field of science and technology studies
(STS).2 An interdisciplinary area of scholar-
ship, STS encompasses work by anthropolo-
gists, sociologists, philosophers and histori-
ans. His research in the history of technology
and practice led him to an article of mine in
the journal Design Studies, where I discussed
how, by investigating the mundane talk that
occurs during design, we can arrive at a
better understanding of the complex collab-
orations inherent in creative practice and
production.3
Ted’s initial proposal for TWD was clear-
ly a rare opportunity to explore further the
“live” activities of design and the process
of construction through a range of scholarly
22 approaches and theories. Although my work
comes from a different academic/applied con-
text than Ted's, my background, like his, en-
compasses elements of both design practice
and scholarship, including studio-based edu-
cation in textiles, clothing, furniture, products
and graphic design, as well as post-graduate
studies in history and the social sciences. In
particular, my PhD research focused on the
conversations that occur throughout design
practice: particularly those occurring during
design education, where the student as a
novice designer learns the explicit and tacit
“languages” of design.4 Design education
involves acquiring technical skills but also
the modes of explanation, discussion and
presentation that are the hallmarks of a “real”
professional designer. After completing my
PhD I worked on projects centred on univer-
sity-level design education, including urban
planning, professional architects and engi-
neers in practice, and research on the presen-
tation of architecture and design through the
medium of television. By the time I joined the
TWD project, Ted had connected with a phi-
losopher and a historian (Halifax-based Letitia
TWD
Meynell and Melanie Frappier). After receiv-
ing the grant, the Insight Group took shape
as a small, diverse team of scholars who
would bring to TWD the reflective insights of
(some of the) interpretive social sciences and
humanities.
While enthused about the TWD initiative
from the outset, I was not fully appreciative
of its ambitious scope. This changed at the
first meeting of the project team, in Halifax in
September 2013, when the total group
of participants from Canada and the US gath-
ered together for three days. This was when
I realised the logistical difficulties involved in
following diverse groups working in diverse
geographic locales. As a micro-sociologist
who studies talk I needed to be personally
present to audio-record the “live” interactions
of various associated team members and
working groups. Fortunately, Claire Nicholas
arrived on the scene. I met Claire in 2011 at a
conference where she spoke about her doc-
toral research on the practices of designers
and craft artisans in Morocco.
As leader of the IG, I maintained contact
with others in the TWD group and, along
with Claire, undertook micro-sociological and
ethnographic studies focused on the diverse
groups of students, instructors, engineers
and others involved with the design and
construction of the various structures. Claire
and I observed in the design studios and on
the construction sites, taking notes, photo-
graphs and producing many hours of audio
and video recordings. We listened, recorded
and transcribed informal meetings, design
reviews, presentations and conference calls.
We are extremely grateful to all who allowed
us access into their everyday lives, and it has
been a privilege to witness the dedication
and creativity of everyone involved. More re-
cently, Claire and I, with Letitia Meynell, have
disseminated our research findings at confer-
ences, including those centred on architec-
ture and architectural education, such as the
conferences of the Association of Collegiate
Schools of Architecture; those centred on the
social sciences and humanities, such as the
conferences of the American Anthropology
Association; and those centred on both prac-
tice and theory, including the conferences of
the Society for the Social Study of Science,
and the Design Research Society. Members
of the IG are also beginning to publish works
associated with the TWD project in venues
that focus on architecture and its education,

Introduction
as well as on wider scholarship in the social
sciences and humanities. By communicating
this interdisciplinary work to diverse aca-
demic and professional audiences, we in the
IG aim to continue the TWD project’s lasting
impact.
Stephen Verderber: On summer evenings
after dinner my mother would open the back
door to loudly call out my name, knowing full
well I had spent hours pillaging lumber from
the neighbourhood’s construction sites after
dusk. The postwar suburban neighbourhoods
of Skokie, just north Chicago, still had a few
unbuilt lots, and my block still had large tri-
angular-shaped parcels at its centre. We 10-to
12-year-olds always called it the prairie. We
competitively constructed elaborate struc-
tures in it, each trying to outdo the others.
Next door to my house was a 12-foot hill
that sloped downward into a second unbuilt
parcel (where two split-level houses would
later be built). I somehow managed to build
a three-level structure at the uppermost edge
of the slope, next to my parents’ driveway.
Using only pilfered materials ad hoc I de-
signed and assembled it on my own. Featur-
ing a ladder and tent-roof on the top level, it 23
was my first design/build construction. Winter
months did not go to waste, either, because I
created igloo-like structures on the property.
Years later, while an undergraduate in
architecture at the University of Wisconsin–
Milwaukee, my design studio embarked on a
three-day wilderness excursion to Rock Island,
Wisconsin, a rural outpost on Lake Michigan
at the farthest tip of Door County, accessi- 2. Cavanagh, Ted (2008).
ble only by ferry, with no vehicles allowed. Diverse Designing: Sorting
Ten four-person student teams designed/ Out Function and Intention
in Artifacts. In Pieter de
built a structure to live in on a cold, rainy late Vermaas, Pieter A. Kroes,
October weekend—the construction budget Andrew Light, Steven A.
Moore (eds.) Philosophy
was only $100. My team concocted a black, and Design: From Engineering
10-foothigh tetrahedral structure consisting of to Architecture. New York:
three diagonal steel columns supported by in- Springer. pp. 301–315.
terconnecting tension cables, with turnbuckles 3. Oak, Arlene (2011).
and sheathed in black plastic. Our unusually What Can Talk Tell Us
shaped structure worked as designed while About Design? Analyzing
Conversation to Under-
most of the other structures proceeded to col- stand Practice. Design
lapse in the rain while we were high and dry Studies, 32. pp. 211–234.
in hammocks slung from the columns. Later, 4. Oak, Arlene (2001).
in graduate school, in Joseph Valerio’s design/ Identities in Practice: Configur-
build studio at Wisconsin, we designed/built a ing Design Activity and Social
Identity Through Talk (PhD
bright blue tent fabric structure that featured
TWD

dissertation), University of
triangulated tensile columns sheathed in Cambridge, King’s College.
 neoprene double-curvature fabric we sewed
Introduction
ourselves (requiring multiple all-nighters
toiling in a local garment factory). It served
admirably as a main stage at that June’s
Summerfest music festival in Milwaukee.
When my son Alexander was age 10, (not
coincidentally) I hosted his class at Tulane
University where, on the patio immediately
in front of the architecture building, teams of
three to four children were each paired with
a pair of architecture students. Supplied with
piles of corrugated cardboard provided gratis
by a local arts supply store, teams designed
and built kid-scaled structures not atypical
of an uptown New Orleans neighbourhood.
Years later, six months before Hurricane Ka-
trina, the chair of the board of the New Orle-
ans Homeless Mission met with me to gauge
my interest in helping them build a dormitory
facility for single homeless mothers and their
children. I agreed to take it on as a design/
build studio project at the Tulane University
School of Architecture.
That spring of 2005 the student team de-
molished a termite-infested structure on the
site while six teams of two students devel-
oped a design proposal for a two-level facility
24 with 32 beds on the upper level, with support
spaces below. HomeAid, an NGO based in
Newport Beach, California, had committed
$3.5M (USD) in October 2005 to its housing
rebuilding initiative along the devastated Gulf
Coast region. The New Orleans Mission was
now benefactor of a $1M (USD) grant to build
this design/build studio project.
Against a chaotic post-disaster backdrop—
an event that claimed the lives of 1,840 and
destroyed 120,000 structures—we regrouped.
Our engineers on the project, as well as the
city’s planning department, were in chaos. It
was the Wild West. HomeAid ended up hiring
a professional contractor to build key parts
of the structure. Innumerable hurdles were
encountered as we muddled through. The
New Orleans Homeless Mission’s women’s
shelter earned a First Design Award from the
Louisiana Chapter of the American Institute of
Architects and a Collaborative Practice Award
from the Association of Collegiate Schools of
Architecture (2007) and was certified LEED
Silver (2007). It was the first LEED building
completed in New Orleans post-Katrina.5
Many worked on that project, contributing
TWD
time and energy under difficult conditions.6
I relocated to Clemson University in 2007,
having left Tulane after 22 years in New Orle-
ans, where I had raised a family. In 2012, Ted
described to me a large grant proposal he was
then developing, and referred to it as Think-
ing While Doing. He asked if I was interested
in working on this grant as part of a cross-bor-
der collaboration with other universities with-
in an interdisciplinary team. He was assem-
bling a number of American and Canadian
universities to work together on the grant. He
asked if I would be a part of the social science
and humanities-based portion (IG) and on
something he referred to as the design/build
exchange (dbX). The dbX was to fill a void in
the design/build educator discourse in North
America. I would focus on constructing an ev-
idence-based student experience assessment
component, and on the dbX database.
Later in spring 2018, I assembled a team
of eight University of Toronto architecture
students to assist in the final construction
phase of the Cape Breton Highlands pavilion.
From the beginning of the TWD project, the
students and my colleagues on this interdis-
ciplinary team have been amazing to work
with. This ambitious undertaking provided a
once-in-a-career opportunity to collaborate
with many creative people, including a social
and materials culture specialist, an anthropol-
ogist, philosopher, the engineering team, an
ethicist and the client-sponsors who hosted
the four case-study builds.
Structure of This Book
Early on in the sprawling Thinking While
Doing (TWD) project the team realised a book
would be the best way to document every-
thing. It could capture the breadth of the work
in its fullest geographic dimensions. Unfortu-
nately, the current status quo in design/build
education in North America typically mandates
that studio-based work in architecture be
presented/published as one-off, autonomous
statements with little to no effort to establish
any connective thread with similar activities
that may be occurring at any other archi-
tecture schools. We viewed this as a major
missed opportunity in peer-to-peer learning.
As exemplified by the renowned Rural Studio,
founded by Samuel Mockbee and D. K. Ruth,
based at Auburn University, independent
pursuits continue to prevail, with built

Introduction
outcomes presented only after the fact. By
contrast, the TWD team set out to not merely
establish an internal discourse within the
team but to connect our evolving internal
discourse with other, external, contempora-
neous discourses occurring elsewhere, such
as the Berlin-based design/build exchange
initiative that operated from 2014 to 2017 and
sought to bring together and coalesce parallel
design-build endeavours throughout the EU.
That said, this book is structured as a set of
context chapters interspersed with a set of
build chapters with each build chapter repre-
senting a case study, beginning with the first
build and culminating with the Cape Breton
Highlands gridshell pavilion. It is as much
about place as process, and this represents
the defining framework of the book, where
each geographic locale was instrumental
(Figure 1.1).
The context chapters function as a parallel,
interconnected narrative to the build chapters.
Together they draw insights, illuminating
socio-cultural, ethical and philosophical ram-
ifications while placing the TWD experience
in its broader societal context. Collectively,
context and case study become a broader 25
interdisciplinary narrative when established
together. As such, the five “build” teams and
their allied documentarians worked closely,
side by side throughout, with the aim of
making sense of what educational design/
build means in its broader cultural contexts. 5. Verderber, Stephen;
It has been about connecting dots, so to speak, Glazer, Breeze & Dionisio,
about drawing new interconnections while Rodney (2011). LEED and
the Design/Build Experi-
consciously drawing upon precedent within ence: A Shelter for Home-
this specialised realm of architectural educa- less Families Returning to
tion. In so doing, we hope the TWD initiative Post-Katrina New Orleans.
International Journal of
has advanced the cause from an advocacy Architectural Research (Arch-
perspective as much as from an aesthetic, net-IJAR), 5(1). pp. 55–72.
technical, scholarly or professional practice 6. Breeze Glazer (M.Arch.,
standpoint. Our hope is for it to be seen as a Tulane University) has
contribution to the scholarly and profession- worked in Robin Guenther’s
studio team at Perkins +
al discourse on the learning and making of Will in New York, and Em-
architecture. ilie Taylor Welty (M.Arch.,
In Chapter 2, salient territories of educa- Tulane) is currently a
Professor of Practice and
tional design/build inquiry are outlined vis- Interim Director of the
à-vis 10 interrelated dimensions of activity, Small Center for Collab-
each expressed as a theorem of sorts. In orative Practice at Tulane
University. Rodney Dionisio
Chapter 3, a brief history of gridshell struc- (M.Arch., Tulane) is
tures is presented that draws from various currently an Architect and
Capitol Projects Coordi-
key precedents built in the 19th century
TWD

nator for the City of New

through the modern movement and up to the Orleans.
TWD Introduction

26
 Introduction
27

Figure 1.1
Aucoin Boulangerie/Bakery,
TWD

Chéticamp, Nova Scotia,

2018.
 present. In Chapter 4, the first of the four built
Introduction

case studies is documented (Chéticamp). In

Chapters 5 and 6, ethical and philosophical
considerations are explored. In Chapter 7, the
second case study (Lafayette) is presented. In
Chapters 8 and 9, social, psychological and
anthropological dimensions of educational
design/build are explored, and in Chapter 10,
its engineering dimensions are examined.
Chapter 11 consists of the third case study
(Tucson), and Chapter 12 describes the gene-
sis, development and structure of the design/
build exchange (dbX) ontology. In Chapter
13, the first evidence-based investigation of
the student experience in educational design/
build is reported. In Chapter 14, the fourth
case study narrative is presented (Cape Bret-
on Highlands).

Editors’ Note

The TWD initiative as originally conceived

and funded by SSHRC was to consist of five
case studies (built structures), although only
four are presented in this book. The fifth
of these and the third to have been built,
28 chronologically (to have been constructed in
Charlotte, North Carolina, and led by Pro-
fessor Greg Snyder), remains unbuilt due to
circumstances beyond the control of the TWD
project team. Despite this, this design/build
studio (based at UNC–Charlotte) provided an
exceptional learning experience for the stu-
dents involved and for the entire TWD project
team. Professor Snyder also had a significant
role in the design and construction of the
Cape Breton Highlands project (Chapter 14).
TWD
 Territories of Educational
Design/Build
Stephen Verderber Introduction

Educational design/build (e-d/b) need no longer operate as an outsider

within the academy. One major reason for its outsider status in the
past has been a persistent lack of meaningful connections to broader
scholarly discourses within the discipline and practice of architecture.
It has thrived, despite the odds, often as a bona fide movement even
though there have been remarkably few fiery manifestos to propel its
advocates and practitioners. Its expansion and maturity have occurred
over the past four decades more through a series of landmark events
or moments in a more or less default condition; this condition continues
to undercut a growing œuvre of significant built work and pedagogical
innovation. To its credit, the movement has prospered while continuing
to operate in the margins more often than not, expressing an unusual
degree of resilience, inspiration and freedom to experiment outside
conventional curricular boundaries. Unfortunately, the full impact of
this growing body of high-quality built work and the teaching/learning–
by–doing it entails remains rather obscured by an insufficient examination
TWD

of what it all means. To this end, 10 territories of educational design/

 build activity are outlined below in an attempt
Territories of Educational Design/Build
to foster internal connectivity and to connect
this emerging field to broader discourses both
within and beyond architecture.
E-d/b, more often than not, operates in the
margins of conventional architectural curricula.
In the extreme, it operates in a curricular vacuum
rather disassociated from the mainstream. This
has, on the one hand, allowed for a degree of
freedom and autonomy, although at times, this
freedom and autonomy may run counter to the
wishes of acquiescent administrators in our
current litigious era.1 With this said,
if it is to ever evolve into a specialised area
with its own rigorous scholarship, and con-
nected to broader scholarly discourses within
architecture and beyond, it cannot continue to
operate as a stepchild.2 One needless conse-
quence of e-d/b’s current default condition
within the academy is that participating faculty
continue to face hurdles in attaining tenure.
Courses in this content area remain under-
developed from a research and scholarship
perspective, and implications of this become
glaring from the standpoint of doctoral edu-
cation, which for better or worse, remains the
main pipeline for budding researchers, theo-
30 rists and historians. The following discussion
seeks to advance the growing international
e-d/b movement.
Moreover, it makes some sense, here, to
attempt to emulate what Alex Krieger accom-
plished with respect to his overview of urban
design education and practice. His influential
essay “Territories of Urban Design” provides
a roadmap of sorts for the paradigmatic
framework that follows.3 Krieger’s essay con-
sisted of 10 streams of inquiry that he viewed
as informing both education and practice
in the realm of urban design. In the case of
e-d/b, the following discussion attempts to
briefly encapsulate the rapidly expanding
literature through case studies of programs
from around the world. Ten territories of e-d/b
are identified, each a dynamic, fluid stream of
inquiry. Collectively they are interwoven, with
each defined by means of examples drawn
from one-off case studies as well as multi-year
curricular initiatives globally. Evidence sub-
stantiating these streams of inquiry continues
to expand and for this reason a fuller dis-
cussion lies beyond the scope of the present
discussion. These foci are by no means mutu-
TWD
ally exclusive: specific programs and courses
are categorised, however, according to their
primary pedagogical focus, with many ex-
amples crossing over into multiple territories
(and in some cases most of the territories) of
educational design/build (Figure 2.1). Virtually
every studio project and/or curriculum on this
subject addresses the following:
1. E-d/b as Reflective Pedagogy
The project/curriculum is a case study in
reflective discourse on best teaching practices
as much as the making of architecture and
other built artefacts.
The roots of educational design-build run deep,
dating from 19th-century post-secondary
training initiatives. The aim has remained
much the same for over a century: to conjoin
design with the act of building what one has
designed and to do so within a unified learning
sequence. The act of designing-then-building
is the overarching pedagogical objective. Its
expression has since become bifurcated and
diverse, expressed in small-scale furnishings
to large-scale freestanding buildings of at times
striking formal clarity and tectonic sophistica-
tion. For a variety of reasons e-d/b has contin-
ued to function in parallel to digitally driven
design pedagogies common in most architec-
tural design curricula today. Still, the under-
lying premise of e-d/b studios has remained
constant—students’ immersion in a real
project with a real client. The largest and most
well known programs do tend to dominate
design pedagogy within their institutions. In the
case of the top 10 North American programs,
students elect to attend these institutions more
often than not because of the institution’s
design-build curricular offerings. On the other
hand, at institutions offering only episodic
studios on this subject, or in cases where only
a one-time studio is offered, perhaps never to
be repeated, this is typically not the case.4
The Neighbourhood Design/Build Studio
is an award-winning e-d/b studio offered by the
Department of Architecture at the University
of Washington. There, students design and
build small community projects for Seattle-
area NGOs. Architecture graduates and un-
dergraduates in their final year gain experi-
ence with clients, public agencies, materials,
assemblies and hands-on construction while
working to benefit community stakeholders.5

Territories of Educational Design/Build

In Germany, at the Technische Universität
Berlin, the module “Design and Building
Construction” is considered a foundational
subject in the undergraduate curriculum.
Students there develop projects in the first 1. Badanes, Steve (2008).
semester in a workshop setting with high The Transformative Power
of Architectural Education.
design valued as much as the ability for the In Bryan Bell and Katie
student to integrate engineering concepts. Wakeford (eds.) Expanding
In the second semester the “1:1 Laboratory” Architecture: Design as Activism.
New York: Metropolis
introduces first-year students to the complex- Books. pp. 248–255.
ity of architectural design and construction
2. Canizaro, Vincent B.
through working with real client-sponsors, (2012). Design-Build in
engaging a tight construction schedule and Architectural Education:
budget limitations. With this “learning-by-do- Motivations, Practices,
Challenges, Successes and
ing” approach, students confront with real Failures. International Journal
constraints, forcing them to devise multiple of Architectural Research, 6(3).
constructible solutions and selecting the pp. 20–36.
most feasible option. Another course taught 3. Kreiger, Alex (2009).
in Germany is the “Monolithisch Bauen” Chapter 1: Territories of
Urban Design. In Alex
(Monolithic Construction) project done in Krieger & William S.
collaboration with the Institut für Experi- Saunders (eds.) Urban Design.
mentelle Architektur and the Finger-Institut Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press. pp. 18–28.
at the Bauhaus University in Weimar. These
courses are premised on learning-by-doing.6 4. Canizaro, Vincent B.
(2012). Design-Build in
At the University of Stuttgart, the Institute Architectural Education:
for Computational Design and Construction Motivations, Practices,
has produced a number of built structures Challenges, Successes and 31
Failures. International Journal
as the outgrowth of e-d/b studios, structures of Architectural Research,
recognised for their technical sophistication 6(3). pp. 20–36. “Service
and craftsmanship.7 Learning” is a core aim of
most one-off e-d/b studios
In the US of the 1960s and ’70s, Christo- and multi-term curricula
pher Alexander’s students at the University although it is often not
defined as such.
of California at Berkeley designed and built
full-scale models using scaffolding and plas- 5. Badanes, Steve (2008).
tic sheeting on-site to test out their design The Transformative Power
of Architectural Educa-
concepts. At the Cranbrook Academy of Art in tion. In Bryan Bell & Katie
Michigan, students have periodically con- Wakeford (eds.) Expanding
structed 1:1 models and various full-scale Architecture: Design as Activism.
New York: Metropolis
site installations. Decades earlier, students Books. pp. 248–255.
who worked with Frank Lloyd Wright in the
1940s and ’50s on the construction of Talies- 6. Fioretti, Peter (2015).
Introductory Remarks. Pre-
in West in Arizona were also engaged in 1:1 sented at the EU Design/
construction projects on the grounds. Paolo Build Conference, Berlin,
Germany.
Soleri’s Arcosanti, also in Arizona, has existed
for nearly 40 years as an experimental e-d/b 7. Menges, Achim (2016).
outpost in the desert.8 In extending e-d/b into ICD ITKE Research Pavil-
ion. Retrieved from
the humanities, engineering and environmen- http://icd.uni-
tal sciences, the student is able to become stuttgart.de/?p=11187.html.
immersed in: 8. Carpenter, William
(1997). Learning by Build-
ing: Design and Construction
in Architectural Education.
TWD

New York: Van Nostrand

Reinhold.
Territories of Educational Design/Build

32

Figure 2.1
TWD

Territories of educational design/build – conceptual

framework
2. E-d/b as Sustainable Practice

Territories of Educational Design/Build

The project/curriculum advances the case for
sustainable, resilient design and construction
practices while invoking non-deleterious eco-
logical consequences.

Sustainable design and building methods

have been addressed in architectural education
for more than 60 years.9 This work includes
the geodesic domes built by Buckminster
Fuller and his students at Southern Illinois
University in the US, and earlier builds com-
pleted in New Zealand in the 1940s.10 Ener-
gy-efficient builds were later completed with
faculty-student studio teams, often as col-
laborative efforts between a local university
and the local storefront “Community Design
Center” (similar to those in the 1960s and ’70s
in the United States).11 Further advances were
made after the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, up to
the current global sustainability movement.
Ecological design remains a primary driv-
er and this manifests in projects that feature 9. Ibid.
off-grid solar power, recyclables and off-site
10. The Demonstration
prefabrication. Eight students in a sculpture House (1948). New Zealand
course at Pomona College in California de- Design Review 1(4). pp. 8–9.
signed and built furniture for that campus’ 33
11. Hatch, C. Richard
new fine arts building, using repurposed de- (1984). The Scope of Social
tritus scavenged from the construction site.12 Architecture. New York: Van
This practice has been a hallmark of Auburn Nostrand Reinhold.
University’s Rural Studio since its inception. 12. Abraham, Sneha. (2014).
In 1994, after securing a $250,000 (USD) Students Recycle Materials
to Create Furniture for
grant from the Alabama Power Foundation, New Studio Art Building.
the studio designed and built its first house Retrieved from
in Mason’s Bend, Alabama. Its unique feature: https://www.pomona.edu/
academics/departments/
donated hay bales for walls. Since then, every art/news/posts/students-re-
Rural Studio build has made use of some type cycle-materials-
of recyclable—72,000 surplus carpet tiles were create-furniture-new-stu-
dio-art-building.
used in another house; worn-out tires were Trumble, Christopher D.
reused in the walls of a chapel; Chevy Caprice (2014). Interstitial Installa-
tion: Site Specific Furniture
windshields were used for a roof in another.13 as an Architectural Micro-
The Rural Studio has constructed more than cosm. In John Stuart & Ma-
80 homes and civic buildings in Alabama, at bel Wilson (eds.) Globalizing
Architecture: Flows and Disrup-
this writing. tions. Paper presented at the
Also in the US, the North Studio, at Wes- 102nd Annual Meeting of
leyan University in Connecticut, is a contem- the Association of Collegiate
Schools of Architecture,
porary variant on the traditional Beaux-Arts Florida International Uni-
pedagogical model of architectural education. versity, Miami Beach.
Focused on developing and constructing con- 13. Anon. (2014). Samuel
ceptually driven projects with nonprofit, public Mockbee: History and Phi-
sector sponsor/collaborators, this studio is losophy. Retrieved from
http://www.samuelmockbee.
at once a locus for undergraduate design
TWD

net/rural-studio/about-the-
education within the context of a liberal arts rural-studio.
 curriculum, and a multidisciplinary design
Territories of Educational Design/Build
workshop committed to seeing concepts car-
ried through to construction. Situated in the
Department of Art and Art History, this e-d/b
studio was initiated in 2006. Exploring the
relationship between architecture, landscape
and sustainable design precepts, each project
undertaken seeks to balance three objectives:
the production of relevant design research, the
real-world testing of ideas and the implemen-
tation of environmentally responsible built
outcomes. Completed builds have won two
national AIA (American Institute of Architects)
awards and have been featured in professional
publications.14
In Spain, the Endesa Pavilion, designed
and constructed in 2011 by students at IAAC
Barcelona, is a self-sufficient, solar-powered
structure. Over a period of one calendar year
it was used as a control room for the mon-
itoring and testing of prototypes related to
intelligent, renewable energy technologies.15
In the UK, the Waste House was built in 2014
at the University of Brighton’s Faculty of Arts,
in collaboration with BBM Architects. A total
of 253 undergraduate students, apprentices
and volunteers participated in the design and
34 construction of this project for the recycling
of reusable building materials. Designed as
a live educational research lab, the Waste
House collaboration tested new methods of
green prefabrication techniques for on-site
waste reduction.16 In these examples e-d/b
provided a vehicle for the demonstration of
how sustainable building methods can simul-
taneously contribute to:
3. E-d/b as Student Empowerment
The project/curriculum engages students’
understanding and appreciation of the art and
science of building, and hence, succeeds as
a vehicle to empower the student.
The fundamental aim of e-d/b should be to
heighten the student’s skill levels, personal
awareness and self-confidence, although un-
fortunately, this is not always how things turn
out. If and when a disconnect occurs, it can be
due to having miscalculated the scope of the
task at hand. Or she or he may eagerly anticipate
working on a real project yet may soon become
TWD
disenchanted with its onerous technical chal-
lenges. Others may become overwhelmed by
the project schedule and the sheer physical
workload. Others may lack requisite skill sets
and require some remedial training with tools.
Perhaps the greatest challenge in the field is to
get everyone to function as a unit and to work
as a team.17 Self-empowerment can be incul-
cated through a culture that values teamwork,
with the students deriving tangible benefits
on a personal level that will serve them
well as aspiring professionals. Small-scale
projects tend to be more effective at instill-
ing student confidence and empowerment
while larger, more complex builds usually
require more time, money and can harbour
myriad logistical setbacks. Mentoring may be
an effective vehicle, but one risk is that the
student may be inadvertently relegated to a
sideline role. The challenge is to carefully set
and then adhere to a project’s size and scope
in relation to studio size, commitment of its
members and then technical abilities.
This is what occurred in the Living Wall
studio, which took place in 2010 and 2011 at
the State University of New York at Buffalo, in
the US. There, first-year architecture students
acquire skill sets in designing, building and
then living in their own creations.18 Similarly,
in the UK, the Architectural Association’s (AA)
Design + Make studio was established in 2010
as a 16-month post-graduate design/build
program based in Hooke Park, Dorset. There,
students collaborate during design, on cam-
pus, and then proceed to live on the construc-
tion site while they build their structure.19
In Indonesia, in the case of the Singapore
University of Technology’s Design Library
Pavilion construction project, their City Form
Lab assisted in the pre-assembly of various
component parts, then the contractor assisted
in erecting the structure on-site.20
Similarly, the Parsons’ Design Workshop
at the New School in New York City shares
with many design-build programs the goal
of providing a glimpse into post-academic
architectural and building practice via its
e-d/b studios.21 In Austria, the design.build
studio at the Vienna University of Technology
seeks to develop students’ creativity, “against
the constraints of the real world.” Founded in
2000 at the university’s Institute of Architec-
ture and Design, the studio has completed
numerous projects, including a day care cen-
tre for persons with developmental disabil-
ities in South Africa in the township Orange

Territories of Educational Design/Build

Farm, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. This
build piloted a subsequent series of socially
engaged builds, in collaboration with other
architecture schools in South Africa. More
than 40 projects, primarily kindergartens and
elementary schools, have been designed and
implemented by university-based student
teams from Austria, Germany, Switzerland
and Slovenia. Invited by Austrian NGO Caritas
in 2007, the studio designed/built a multipur-
pose hall for an orphanage on the Indonesian
island of Nias. From 2008 onwards, this stu-
dio has concentrated its activities in Austria,
building permanent projects for social insti-
tutions including Parkbetreuung and Caritas.
A recent project, the Mobile Urban Lab, was a
portable structure for lectures, workshops
and exhibitions, and was based on adapted
ISO shipping containers.22
In Scandinavia, the Norwegian University
of Science and Technology (NTNU) Live Studio
has a well-established tradition of e-d/b
activity. Live Projects (the term used in the
UK and Europe to describe e-d/b) there have
included small, traditionally crafted Norwe-
gian boathouses to larger-scale projects built
in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Students
work closely with local municipalities and with
grassroots, community-based stakeholders.23
This synchronization relates closely to:
14. Huge, Elijah (2016).
North Studio.
Retrieved from
http://ehuge.web.wesleyan.
edu/northstudio.
15. Rubio, Rodrigo &
Guerrero, Miguel (2012).
Endesa Pavilion/Institute
for Advanced Architecture
of Catalonia—IAAC.
Retrieved from http://www.
archdaily.com/274900/
endesa-pavilion-iaac.
16. Kawayeh, Merlem
(2014). Student Works:
This House Made of Trash
Teaches a Lesson in Green
Housekeeping.
Retrieved from
http://archinect.com/fea-
tures/article/103711909/
student-works-this-house-
made-of-trash-teaches-a-les-
son-in-green-housekeeping.
html.
17. Maturity and experience
levels can (and frequently
do) differ widely within a
studio, a source of interper-
sonal tensions challenging
overall team cohesiveness.
18. Nazarian, Shadi, Roma-
no, Chris, Bruscia, Nick & 35
Hume, Matthew (2011). The
Living Wall. Retrieved from
http://thelivingwall.blog-
spot.ca.

19. Introduction (2016). AA

Design & Make.
Retrieved from
4. E-d/b as Placemaking http://designandmake.
aaschool.ac.uk.
The project/curriculum contributes in a
20. Anon. (2013). Student
positive manner to the establishment and Works: Singapore University
reinforcement of locality, sense of place and of Technology and Design
cultural authenticity at multiple scales of Library Pavilion
Retrieved from
inquiry. http://archinect.com/fea-
tures/article/75126636/
student-works-singapore-
A key to student satisfaction in e-d/b is the university-of-technolo-
degree to which the built outcome addresses gy-and-design-library-pavil-
local as well as broader societal issues of ion.html.
concern. The term “placemaking” itself, how- 21. Goldberger, Paul (2016).
ever, is broadly defined and is often reduced Excerpt from Design Work-
to a marketing pitch.24 New condo projects in shop: 1998–2005.
Retrieved from 23. Wellinger, Steffen (2016).
places such as Vancouver, British Columbia, http://sce.parsons.edu/spe- NTNU Live Studio–Back-
are advertised as creating an ersatz “Sense cial-projects/design-work- ground. Retrieved from
shop. http://ntnulivestudio.
of Place.” Catchphrases, such as River Place org/?page_id=1860.html.
or Prairie View Estates, are absurdly named 22. Fattinger, Peter (2016).
when, in reality, no such sense of place is to design.build studio. 24. Verderber, Stephen
Retrieved from (2012). Sprawling Cities and
be found anywhere in sight. The main question
TWD

http://www.dbxchange. Our Endangered Public Health.

in the case of e-d/b is the degree to which the eu/?q=node/387. London: Routledge.
 studio experience is able to yield buildings
Territories of Educational Design/Build
and artefacts viewed as meaningful contribu-
tors in their surrounding physical and socio-
cultural fabrics, and the degree to which the
outcome reflects locality, i.e., local cultural
traditions. Granted, in the confines of a one-
or two-semester curricular sequence there
is often insufficient time to fully examine the
inner profundities of place and its broader
ramifications (i.e., symbolism, infrastructural
fabric, vernacular traditions and socio-cultural
and political contexts), yet these dimensions
of the built outcome remain meritorious.25
With this said, the Winterlude Festival
occurs each year in Ottawa, Canada. In 2015,
Ryerson University Master of Architecture
students designed and built a temporary bam-
boo pavilion with a user-responsive interior
lighting system. As a site-specific installation,
it proved popular as a gathering place within
the city’s Confederation Park.26
In the US, the Detroit Collaborative Design
Center (DCDC) is a multidisciplinary, nonprof-
it architecture and urban design conservancy
at the University of Detroit Mercy School
of Architecture. Since 1994, the DCDC has
worked with over 80 Detroit-based NGOs,
36 grassroots community groups and philan-
thropic foundations, in addition to the local
government, private developers and local
design professionals in the promotion of
Detroit’s stabilisation. Through the use of
participatory design strategies, stakeholders
engage in community planning, development
and building design in each constructed proj-
ect. To this end, the DCDC developed a nation-
ally recognised Neighbourhood Engagement
Workshop (NEW) process.27
Also in the US, Spirit of Place/Spirit of De-
sign was launched in 1993 at the Catholic Uni-
versity of America. Twenty-two builds have
been completed in urban and rural locales in
Peru, Canada, US, Ireland, Nepal, Italy and
Finland. The studio experience is coordinat-
ed with the university’s Cultural Studies and
Sacred Space Curriculum.28 In Japan, at the
Koshirakura Landscape Workshop, a curricular
extension of the London-based AA’s Visiting
School, students are challenged to respect
and consider “local architectural character,
heritage and ways of life.” In 1996, the first
iteration was held at the summer workshop
in Koshirakura Village, Japan. It became an
TWD
annual event and a part of Koshirakura’s
traditional Maple Cutting Festival. Participants
were drawn from the AA as well as many other
schools. Intercultural exchange has been a
significant part as students assist local resi-
dents. The festival begins with the selection
and cutting of a sacred tree in the mountains,
which is then carried down into the village for
a night of singing and dancing. The following
day the tree is carried from house to house to
commemorate and celebrate significant events
of the previous year–i.e., births, marriages, a
special birthday, a new house built.29 Place-
making through e-d/b is closely aligned with:
5. E-d/b as Community Engagement
The project/curriculum succeeds in engaging
client/sponsors, key socio-cultural stakeholders
and broader constituencies in the community-
at-large.
Most design/build programs partner with
nonprofit organisations devoted to community
service.30 Often, a cold call or introduction
through a mutual acquaintance is a first point
of contact in seeking out this type of pro bono
assistance. The Rural Studio, in the beginning,
offered its services to whoever responded to
its offer of help with small renovation proj-
ects.31 This led in time to what is arguably the
most well known e-d/b curriculum in North
America. Similarly, in the case of the New Or-
leans Women’s Shelter Family Center, a Tulane
University studio in 2005 and 2006 (led by this
author) worked early on to gain the trust of
the client-sponsor by volunteering as meal-
time food servers and later volunteering
collectively to demolish a dilapidated structure
at the rear of what was to be the build site
for a 35-bed LEED-Silver certified shelter for
returning mothers and their children, in the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2006.32
A key precedent for the New Orleans build
was Design Bridge, a student-run program
based at the University of Oregon. Its focus is
on projects accruing mutual benefit to design
students and to the local community. Buck-
minster Fuller, a visiting critic in the 1950s
and ’60s, built plywood geodesic domes with
the students. A related program, Oregon-
BILDS (Building Integrated Livable Designs
Sustainably), is an e-d/b studio program at the
same university that draws architecture and
construction management students together

Territories of Educational Design/Build

to work on builds in the local community.33 25. Bell, Bryan (2004).
Finding Clients. In Bryan
Since 1996, Miami University’s Department Bell (ed.) Good Deeds, Good
of Architecture and Interior Design has collab- Design: Community Service
Through Architecture. Hudson:
orated closely with community organisations Princeton Architectural
located in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine Press. pp. 26–28.
neighbourhood on a variety of projects vis-
26. Bowen, Frank & Bica,
à-vis the university’s Over-the-Rhine Design/ Adrian (2015). Winterlude
Build Studio. This studio also provides Wonderland. Retrieved from
schematic design for affordable housing and http://www.ryerson.ca/
graduate/news/newslis-
those eligible for tax credit financial assis- tings/master-architec-
tance—through a federal program adminis- ture-students-create-
winterlude-pavilion.html.
tered by the State of Ohio. Builds include the
2004 Cincinnati Freedom Summer Design 27. Pitera, Daniel (2016).
Charrette for Social Justice, the Washington Detroit Collaborative De-
sign Center. Retrieved from
Park Housing Redevelopment Plan and a se- http://www.dcdc-
nior citizens’ housing development in a neigh- udm.org/about.
bourhood then undergoing gentrification.34 28. Price, Travis (2016).
Community engagement is aligned with the Spirit of Place/Spirit of
practice of: Design. Retrieved from
http://spiritofplace-
design.com/about-2/philos-
ophy. Also see Price, Travis
6. E-d/b as Critical Regionalism (2015). The Mythic Modern:
Architectural Expeditions into the
Spirit of Place. San Francisco:
The project/curriculum fuses indigenous ORO Books.
building traditions, aesthetic vocabularies and 29. Canizaro, Vincent
building methods with progressive influences. (2012). Design-Build in
Architectural Education: 37
Motivations, Practices,
Design Build Bluff is a nonprofit organisation Challenges, Successes and
with a two-fold mission: to build energy-effi- Failures. International Journal
cient and sustainable homes for the people of Architectural Research, 6(3).
pp. 24. Also see Egashira,
of the Navajo Nation in southeastern Utah in Shin (2016). Koshirakura
the US while immersing students in local Landscape Workshop.
cultural traditions. Between 2003 and 2014, Retrieved from
http://www.koshirakura.
nine homes were built, all of ecologically org/about.
sustainable, salvaged and recycled materials.
30. Sokol, David (2008).
Private fundraising and federal grants Teaching by Example: 33. Canizaro, Vincent
provided approximately $50,000 (USD) in Design-Build Educators (2012). Design-Build in
funding per build. Students spent the entire Talk Pedagogy and Real Architectural Education:
Politick. Architectural Record. Motivations, Practices,
semester working out of the Bluff, Utah, 10. p. 125. Challenges, Successes and
basecamp. During the fall of 2010, 22 students Failures. International Journal
built the Windcatcher House, having spent the 31. Freear, Andrew, Barthel, of Architectural Research, 6(3).
Elena & Oppenheimer, p. 24. Also see Thallon,
preceding summer selecting the client (fami- Andrea Dean (2014). Rural Robert (2016) Oregon-
ly) and the site, and being engaged in design. Studio at Twenty: Designing BILDS. Retrieved from
and Building in Hale County, https://oregonbilds.uoregon.
The dwelling was completed in 13 weeks. Alabama. Hudson: Princeton edu.
Navajo culture inspired the endeavour, Architectural Press.
as did a severe yet spectacular desert site 34. Sokol, David (2008).
32. Verderber, Stephen, Teaching by Example:
context. The private areas of this home are Glazer, Breeze & Dionsio, Design-Build Educators
oriented to the east, in accord with Navajo Rodney (2011). LEED and Talk Pedagogy and Real
tradition, which holds morning light as sa- the Design/Build Politick. Architectural Record.
Experience: A Shelter for 10. p. 125. Also see Dutton,
cred. Rainwater is collected in a large cistern, Homeless Families Return- Thomas A. (2016) Over-the-
and a trough provides drinking water for ing to Post-Katrina New Rhine DesignBuild Studio.
Orleans. International Journal Retrieved from
horses and irrigation. The focal point is the
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of Architectural Research 5(1). http://arts.muohio.edu/otr/

Windcatcher, a 30-foot-tall chimney at the pp. 55–72. about.html.
 centre of the parti that provides both cooling
Territories of Educational Design/Build

and heating. Since many Navajo live off-grid,

this dwelling is completely self-sustaining.35
Two other built projects were the Skow House
(2013) and the Hozho House (2013). In each,
local vernacular traditions and building meth-
ods were reinterpreted in a rural context.36
The BaSiC Initiative is a collaboration of
faculty and students from Portland State Uni-
versity and the University of Texas at Austin
School of Architecture. Past e-d/b projects have
addressed the affordable housing needs of
Native Americans and migrant farm workers,
offering students a variety of design/build
opportunities. A program in Mexico occurs
during the winter in squatter settlements in
Morelos, whereas the Strawbale Program in
Montana occurs during the summer at Native
American reservations. This program has built
elementary schools, clinics, a children’s library,
laundry facilities, houses, literacy centres,
urban gardens, wells, cisterns, waste treatment
facilities and solar panels.37
The Women´s Cooperative in NAXIÍ, Mexico
(2012), was built by architecture students
from TU Berlin in Germany with Universidad
Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM). This
38 collaboration is called CoCoon. A jam factory
was designed and built for the women’s coop-
erative NAXIÍ in Oaxaca. The factory was built
primarily from clay bricks fabricated by local
craftspeople from excavations at the building
site.38 This program began in 1998 and is an
interdisciplinary course at TU Berlin that gives
students of architecture, civil engineering,
landscape design and other disciplines the
opportunity to design and build a project
during a fieldwork semester living in Mexico.39
Similarly, in Australia, the Bower Studio, an
e-d/b studio for graduate students at the Uni-
versity of Melbourne, has completed a dozen
projects, including a shelter for an aboriginal
family living in the Belyuen community in
Australia’s Northern Territory.40 Similarly, the
Scarcity and Creativity Studio at AHO, in Oslo,
Norway, was established in 2012. To date,
students have constructed projects in Norway
and in Chile. Materials are sourced locally,
and local craftspeople help to build respon-
sivity to local terrain, climate and cultural
conditions.41 These activities can be effectively
interwoven with:
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7. E-d/b as Tectonic Innovation
The project/curriculum succeeds in showcas-
ing innovative materiality, new applications
of traditional materials and innovative con-
struction methods.
Since 2004, the ecoMOD program at the Uni-
versity of Virginia has completed 12 housing
units on eight sites. The intent has been to
provide high-quality design for moderate-in-
come families by means of off-site prefab
modularity. Renovations and upgrades to
existing historic residences have also been
completed under the umbrella of this program.
Five existing historic dwellings have been
transformed. Both studios were an outgrowth
of the university’s 2002 Solar Decathlon
Competition entry.42 The University of Arkan-
sas’ Design/Build Workshop (D/BW) shares a
similar goal: the use of prefab components.43
Other schools have explored common
materials in uncommon ways. Explorations
in tectonics and materiality have included
lightweight gridshells fabricated in wood,
which are also the focus of numerous stu-
dios at Dalhousie University in Canada.44 The
University of Kansas’ Studio 804 is one of the
most established programs in North America.
Its recent Ecohawks Research Facility (2012–
2013), built on the university campus in Law-
rence, is designed for conducting research on
the conversion of fossil fuel-powered vehicles
into battery and solar-powered vehicles. The
aluminum strips of the building’s upper skin
are interwoven with horizontal aluminum
tubes, requiring precise hand-welding at every
corner connection. The 20 students in this
studio researched the alloy’s properties to
ensure every joined surface weathered equiv-
alently, and to this end a series of welding
training workshops were held. The parti con-
sists of two enclosed volumes for working
on electric vehicles and an open-air workspace.
This was Studio 804’s sixth LEED-Platinum
certified project.45
In London, the Architectural Association’s
Design + Make programme centres on student
prototyping and subsequent 1:1 construction.
Situated in the English countryside, it is
based at Hooke Park, the AA’s Dorset campus
for research in timber and alternative rural
architecture. Students use a studio and work-
shop/fabrication space, designing and build-
Territories of Educational Design/Build
35. Meinhold, Bridgette
(2013). Windcatcher House.
Urgent Architecture. New York:
W.W. Norton. pp. 237–241.
36. Anon. (2014). Skow Res-
idence / Colorado Building
Workshop+DesignBuild-
BLUFF. Retrieved from
http://www.archdaily.
com/541436/skow-res-
idence-colorado-build-
ing-workshop-designbuild-
bluff/. Also see Anon.
(2014). Hozho House/Colo-
rado Building Workshop
+DesignBuildBLUFF.
Retrieved from
http://www.archdaily.
com/541420/hozho-house-
designbuildbluff-universi-
ty-of-colorado-denver. 39
37. Palleroni, Sergio (2016).
BaSiC Initiative–Building
Sustainable Communities.
Retrieved from
http://basicinitiative.com/
about.
38. Hartig, Ursula (2016).
Introduction to CoCoon—
Contextual Construction.
Retrieved from 43. Herman, Gregory
http://edbkn.service.tu-ber- (2008). Market Modular. In
lin.de/edbkn/?q=node/365. Brian Bell & Katie Wakeford
(eds.) Expanding Architecture:
39. Hartig, Ursula (2016). A Design as Activism. New
Jam Manufactory for Naxii. York: Metropolis Books. pp.
Retrieved from http:// 193–198.
edbkn.service.tu-berlin.de/
edbkn/?q=node/399. 44. Cavanagh, Ted (2009).
Diverse Designing: Sorting
40. O’Brien, David (2016). Out Function and Intention
Bower Studio—An Intro- in Artefacts. In Pierter A.
duction. Retrieved from Vermaas, Peter Kroes, An-
http://bowerstudio.com.au. drew Light & Steven Moore
(eds.) Philosophy and Design:
41. Anon. (2014). Building From Engineering to Architecture.
Day #26. Retrieved from New York: Springer.
http://scl34.aho.no/build-
ing-day-26. 45. Gerfen, Katie (2013).
Ecohawks Research Facility.
42. Quale, John D. (2012). Retrieved from
Sustainable, Affordable, Prefab: http://www.architectmag-
The ecoMOD Project. Char- azine.com/design-build/
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lottesville: University of eco-hawks-research-facility.
Virginia Press. aspx.
 ing structures within one of two streams:
Territories of Educational Design/Build
design concepts field-tested as 1:1 builds and
the development of new timber construction
technology. Two courses are offered: a 16-
month MArch course and a 12-month MSc
course. Each track includes seminars, 1:1
builds and an independent thesis.46 Recent
builds include Driftwood (2009) in London,
the AA Summer Pavilion. Additionally, annual
projects by second-and third-year students of
AA’s Intermediate Unit 2 are fabricated and
constructed at Hooke Park.47 One such ex-
emplar is the Tetrahedron (2015), a pyramidal
structure fabricated entirely in wood.48
In Japan, the Circle Pack Pavilion (2012) in
Tokyo was designed and built by students in
the Global 30 Studio in the Department of
Architecture’s Obuchi Laboratory at the Uni-
versity of Tokyo. The structure was fabricated
from hundreds of bamboo rings ranging
from 250 to 450mm in diameter, connected
by clear plastic shrink film that provided
rigidity and tension to the components when
heated.49 In the US in 2009, the Elastic Plastic
Sponge was created by students from the
Southern California Institute of Architecture
(SCI-Arc) and installed at the Coachella Music
40 Festival in California. This structure was de-
rived from a tectonic-driven parti as a kinetic,
movable, “form active” structure.50 Similarly,
studio3, based at the University of Innsbruck,
specialises in contemporary art, culture and
experimental architectural “Tangible Utopias,”
i.e., the implementation of innovative material
palettes and building technologies.51 The
pedogological aims and the built outcomes
of these programs can be avowedly tecton-
ic-centric while simultaneously committed to
advancing:
8. E-d/b as Socio-Political Advocacy
The studio/curriculum succeeds in improving
the socio-economic and political well-being of
those for whom the student designs and builds.
The Yale Building Project has been in exis-
tence since 1967. It began in the context of the
massive social upheaval of the 1960s. Each
year, graduate students design and construct
a building for a not-for-profit entity; completed
builds have ranged from rural Appalachian
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community centres and a health clinic to
pavilions and recreational structures con-
structed in Connecticut. More recently,
single-family residences have been built on
narrow, non-conforming sites in economical-
ly distressed urban neighbourhoods in New
Haven. Recent partnerships have occurred
with Habitat for Humanity, Home Inc., Neigh-
bourhood Housing and Common Ground.52
Subsequently new e-d/b programs in the US
and elsewhere have been modelled on Yale’s.
One such offspring sponsored more than 60
students from the University of Tennessee
School of Architecture on design/builds in
post-earthquake Haiti, led by John McRae
in collaboration with a local NGO, the Haiti
Christian Development Fund.53 Completed
projects include a solar panel installation,
an elementary school, an ongoing survey
research project and the design and construc-
tion of Caleb House. Its LIFEHouse method is
a widely cited how-to manual for rebuilding
amid the different conditions in Haiti.
A Syrian refuge camp recently built on
Benrodestraße in Düsseldorf was designed/
built by students at the Peter Behrens School
of Arts/Institute for Social Impact. This was the
first temporary installation erected in Düs-
seldorf for this purpose, providing 200 beds
for arriving families in 2016. Additionally, an
18m-long decommissioned public transport
bus was transformed for use by refugee chil-
dren.54 In Germany, since 2006, the Technical
University at Aachen architecture program has
conducted e-d/b studios focused on projects
constructed in South Africa. Full-scale 1:1
mock-ups are first built on campus prior to
their construction in the field.55
Some e-d/b initiatives are joint ventures
between multiple participating universities.
The Guga S. Thebe Children’s Theatre (2014),
a theatre and performance space, brought
together students from the Peter Behrens
School of Arts (HS Düsseldorf), RWTH Aachen
University, in Germany, the Georgia Institute
of Technology, in Atlanta (US) and University
of Cape Town, in South Africa. Located in
one of Cape Town’s oldest, most hardscrab-
ble townships, this theatre attracts children,
adolescents and artists. The theatre seats
200: its parti consists of a system of loosely
stacked ISO shipping containers surrounding
a central stage element housing a backstage
area, soup kitchen, music rehearsal spaces,
recording studio and sanitary facilities.56
Similarly, the BASEhabitat program based
at the University of Art and Design Linz in
Austria has collaborated with various NGOs
since 2004 to construct a number of e-d/b
projects in the EU.57 46. Anon. (2016). Pro-
Also in Germany, the Faculty of Architecture gramme Overview, Design/
at the Technical University of Munich uses its Make Programme, Live Builds.
Retrieved from
e-d/b studios to promote social development http://designandmake.aa-
in southern Africa. Students have designed school.ac.uk/programme.
and built a kindergarten in an underdeveloped 47. Turner, Brad (2009).
region in Africa. Since 2007, it has organised Driftwood Pavilion by AA
and financed the club building for Orange Unit 2 Opens.
Retrieved from
Farm eV, projects built alongside local villagers http://www.dezeen.
who assist in construction and the local com/2009/07/03/drift-
sourcing of materials. The collaboration of wood-pavilion-by-aa-unit-2-
opens/.
students from the EU with local African com- Also see Willock,
munities promotes mutual understanding and Nathan (2009). The Archi-
tectural Association’s 2009
helps to foster deep, mutually beneficial, and Summer Pavilion.
lifelong learning experiences and coincides in Retrieved from
many ways with the virtues of 58: http://www.contempo-
rist.com/2009/07/03/
the-architectural-associa-
tions-2009-summer-pavil-
9. E-d/b as Disaster Mitigation ion/.
48. Bennett, Valerie (2015).
The project/curriculum contributes to fur- Floating Pyramid and
Wooden Tunnel Built in
thering the aim of mitigating the deleterious the Woods by Architectur-
consequences of natural and human-induced al Association Students.
disasters, and their painful aftermath. Retrieved from
http://www.dezeen.
com/2015/02/07/floating-
Post-disaster strike zones have emerged as pyramid-and-wooden-
powerful attractors for design/build studios. tunnel- built-in-the-
woods-by-architectural-as-
Faculty are drawn to examining disaster strike sociation-students.
zones firsthand and assessing how their
institution can meaningfully assist. Recent 49. Obuchi, Yusuke (2016).
Circle Pack Pavilion, 2012.
examples include the aftermath of Hurricane Retrieved from
Katrina (2005); the Haitian Earthquake (2010); http://www.obuchilab.com/
pavilion/circle-pack-pa-
severe F-5 tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Alabama vilion/.
(2011) and in Joplin, Missouri (2011); Super- Also see Anon. (2012). Cir-
storm Sandy on the US eastern seaboard in cle Packing. Retrieved from
http://archinect.com/lost-
the New York–New Jersey region (2012); and inpermutation/circle-pack-
Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico (2017). Studios ing.
working in these contexts, in reality, can be
50. Petrunia, Paul (2009).
a hit-or-miss proposition, with relatively few Student Works: Rock and
attaining a measurable level of design effica- Roll Fantasy – SCI-Arc at
Coachella: Elastic Plastic
cy or long-term resiliency.59 The URBANBuild Sponge. Retrieved from
program at Tulane University stands out as http://archinect.com/
an exemplar (as does the aforementioned features/article/88824/stu-
dent-works-rock-and-roll-
New Orleans Mission e-d/b initiative) for its fantasy-sci-arc-at-coachella-
completion of private dwellings built in asso- elastic-plastic-sponge.html.
ciation with Neighbourhood Housing Services
51. Prenner, Walter (2016).
(NHS) in New Orleans. NHS provides the /studio3 – Institut für
sites, chosen from among four lower-income Experimentelle Architektur.
Retrieved from
inner-city neighbourhoods. This multi-year
http://www.dbxchange.
e-d/b curriculum is embraced locally, and eu/?q=node/1214.
Territories of Educational Design/Build
52. Hayes, Richard W.
(2007). The Yale Building
Project: The First 40 Years.
New Haven: Yale Universi-
ty Press.
53. Hancock, Tanner
(2014). UT Students Help
to Rebuild Haiti.
Retrieved from
http://www.utdaily.beacon.
com/news/2014/jun/11/
ut-students-help-rebuild-
haiti.
54. Anon. (2016). Introduc-
tion, Design.Develop.Build
PBSA. Retrieved from
http://www.dbxchange.
eu/?q=node/1088. Also
see Reitz, Judith, Klein-
Wiele, Franz & Urton,
Tobias (2016). Spiel-und 41
Aufenthaltsbus (Playbus).
Retrieved from
http://edbkn.service.tu-
berlin.de/?q=node/1362.
55. Bernhardt, Anne
Julchen (2016) Overview,
Design.Develop.Build Studio.
Retrieved from
http://gbl.arch.rwth-
aachen.de/ddb/.
56. Guga S. Thebe Theatre
(2016). Retrieved from
http://www.dbxchange.
eu/?q=node/1025.
57. Gnaiger, Roland (2016).
BASEhabitat – architecture
for development.
Retrieved from
http://www.basehabitat.
org/base.
58. Anon. (2016). Introduc-
tion, Bauen für Orange-
Farm. Retrieved from
http://www.orangefarm-
ev.de/verein/wer_wir_sind.
php.
59. Tulane hosted 22 e-d/b
studios in the first six
months after the university
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reopened in January of
2006.
 student participation is a graduation require-
Territories of Educational Design/Build
ment in architecture at Tulane.60 In the imme-
diate aftermath of Katrina, students from the
University of Kansas visited New Orleans,
initiating a series of relatively small-scale
design/build collaborations with an ad hoc
grassroots organisation, the Porch Cultural
Organization in the Seventh Ward.61
In Japan, architecture students from Keio
University designed and erected the Fish
Arch, a structure fabricated in grooved “fish
shapes” of digitally cut wood scraps and as-
sembled as a puzzle. The intent was to inspire
and spur on the local community as it rebuilt
its fishing industry after the massive 2011
earthquake and tsunami.62
In Australia, following a spate of devastat-
ing wildfires, the Monash University Depart-
ment of Architecture, in collaboration with
the Rhode Island School of Design in the US,
contributed to the rebuilding of the township
of Kinglake via an e-b/d studio focused on
the provision of relief worker housing.63 In
the US, in 2014, the Center for Public Interest
Design offered a two-part course in disaster
relief mitigation and reconstruction, subse-
quently assisting a family of the Northern
42 Cheyenne people in the rebuilding of their
home after recent wildfires devastated their
reservation lands in southeastern Montana.
The studio also rebuilt the stables so the
family could reconstitute its sole means of
financial support. Students and local vol-
unteers built a wheelchair-accessible, wrap-
around deck with a new roof and cleared
large swaths of charred juniper trees.64
Based in Berlin, Reclaiming Heritage has
sponsored recent e-d/b studio builds in Chan-
co, Chile, and in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti.
These structures were built by student teams
from the Technische Universität Berlin and the
P. Universidad Católica de Chile. The aim was
to reclaim and recycle building materials for
use in post-disaster reconstruction while re-
maining sensitive to local vernacular building
traditions.65 The assemblage of diverse exper-
tise from multiple disciplines in these situa-
tions can greatly reinforce and extend:
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10. E-d/b as Interdisciplinary Knowledge
Mobilisation
The project/curriculum succeeds in drawing
together architecture students and specialists
from non-design disciplines, with the shared
aim of advancing society.
The term “knowledge mobilisation” is rapidly
acquiring currency as a rallying cry to accel-
erate innovative applied research in service
learning contexts. But what is the fundamental
difference between research and innovation?
Research universities are committed to gen-
erating new knowledge and are tasked with
engaging industry to find new outlets for this
knowledge. E-d/b endeavours most certainly
extend the reach of the university into society,
although the “transfer quotient” of this accu-
mulated body of knowledge remains imma-
terial if unreported in peer-reviewed venues.
Other disciplines are far better at doing this,
although knowledge mobilisation, and inno-
vation itself for that matter, are rarely disci-
pline-centric—with the most inspiring builds
beautifully blurring the lines that artificially
isolate disciplines within the ivory tower. A
successful build is capable of advancing both
the service-learning and interdisciplinary
dimensions of the knowledge mobilisation
equation. Here, dissemination is essential.
Perhaps the time has arrived for a journal
exclusively devoted to e-b/d—a peer-reviewed
journal focused on knowledge mobilisation in
the discipline and practice of architecture.
In Canada, University of British Columbia
e-d/b studio students designed and built Lu’s
Pharmacy for Women (2008), the culmination
of a successful community outreach initiative.
This project linked multiple stakeholders,
including contractors, city building permit
agencies, private sector grant agencies and
private donors in a common purpose. The
students alone raised $115,000 (CAD) to make
the project a reality, including a $50,000 (CAD)
Vancity green building grant and the solici-
tation of a grant of $25,000 (CAD) from the
City of Vancouver. This transfer of design
knowledge and technology from campus to
community was widely hailed.66 Similarly in
Europe, TUM.Designbuild is another program
that, since 2006, offers EU architecture stu-
dents an opportunity to engage underserved
communities in Africa. Students work along-
side local trades-and craftspeople under the

Territories of Educational Design/Build

tutelage of architects.67
In the US, the aforementioned Center for
Public Interest Design, based at Portland State
University, provides research, design, consult-
ing and community engagement assistance
to address persistent challenges facing vul-
nerable communities and ecosystems around
the globe. Established in 2013, in response to 60. Anon. (2014). Neigh-
bourhood Housing Services,
unmet conditions in underserved communities Urban Build—A Partner-
in the United States and developing nations, ship with Tulane School of
the program applies best design practices Architecture. Retrieved from
http://www.nhsnola.org/
to the provision of adequate shelter, food, site95.html.
potable water supplies, disaster prepared-
ness, recovery and general interdisciplinary 61. Gore, Neil & Corser,
Ruth (2008). Insurgent
knowledge mobilisation drawing together Architecture in the Seventh
diverse stakeholders from both public and Ward. Batture: Amnesiascope.
4. pp. 4–11.
NGO sectors.68 Similarly, since its inception in
2009, the Research Through Making program, 62. Meinhold, Bridgette
housed in the Taubman College at the Uni- (2011). Japanese Students
Build a Pavilion from
versity of Michigan, brings together faculty Thousands of Fish to
advisors and students to undertake innova- Support Tsunami Recon-
tive e-d/b studio projects.69 struction Efforts.
Retrieved from
http://inhabitat.com/japa-
nese-students-
build-a-pavilion-from-thou-
Discussion sands-of-fish-to-support-tsu-
nami-reconstruction-efforts.
The aforementioned 10 streams are by no 43
63. Anon. (2016). Com-
means to be construed as exhaustive. Myriad munity Shelter at Kinglake
internal and external determinants influence Victoria Australia 2009.
the entire process from start to finish. However, Retrieved from
http://www.frominform.
a set of rather universal determinants is com/#!kinglake-pavillion/
discernable. This initial attempt to identify sitepage_20.html.
these forces is depicted in Figure 2.2. Re- 64. Anon. (2016). Introduc-
current socio-cultural, political, economic, tion, About CPID. Retrieved
climatic, geographical and ecological factors from http://www.pdx.edu/
public-interest-design/
will continue to shape the e-b/d experience, about-cpid. Also see Anon. 67. Kestel, Matthias (2016).
while at once providing a barometer of the (2016). Montana De- TUM.DESIGNBUILD—
current global vitality of the e-d/b movement. sign-Build. Retrieved from Architectural Design and
http://www.pdx.edu/ Timber Construction.
Second, the diverse programs and projects public-interest-design/mon- Retrieved from
reported above function collectively as a tana-design-build. http://www.dbxchange.
roadmap of what is happening, and where. eu/?q=node/986.
65. Castrillón, Renato
For example, in places experiencing the most D’Alencon (2016). Reclaim- 68. Anon. (2016). About
intensive, acute effects of climate change, ing Heritage, Introduction. CPID. Retrieved from
Retrieved from http://pdx.edu/public-inter-
e-b/d studios are actively assisting communi- http://www.reclaimingheri- est-design/about-cpid.
ties in coping with its dramatic ramifications. tage.org/html.
In places where the mainstream construction 69. Anon. (2016). Research
66. Waugh, Basil (2008). Through Making—Intro-
industry remains hesitant to experiment with A Friendly Neighborhood duction. Retrieved from
new materials and methods of assembly, e-d/b Drugstore: UBC Students https://taubmancollege.
Design a Pharmacy for umich.edu/architec-
studios are actively consulting with product Women in Canada’s Tough- ture/faculty-research/
manufacturers to field-test new pre-market est Neighborhood. UBC Re- research-through-mak-
products that mainstream client/sponsors ports, 54(9). Retrieved from ing/2016.
http://news.ubc.ca/ubcre- Completed studio builds
would otherwise be unwilling to risk. In poor
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ports/2008/08sep04/phar- have received awards from

communities struggling to provide basic social macy.html. the ACSA and P/A.
Territories of Educational Design/Build

44

Figure 2.2
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Field determinants of educational

design/build–operational framework.
Territories of Educational Design/Build
45

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Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
El cuarto gobierno, que comprendía solo los cilicios, además de 360
caballos blancos que salían a uno por día,[290] pagaba al rey 500
talentos de plata, de los cuales 140 se quedaban allí para mantener la
caballería apostada en las guarniciones de Cilicia, y los 360 restantes
iban al erario real de Darío.
XCI. El quinto gobierno, cargado con 350 talentos de imposición
empezaba desde la ciudad de Posideo,[291] fundada por Anfíloco, hijo
de Anfiarao, en los confines de los cilicios y sirios, y llegando hasta e
Egipto, comprendía la Fenicia entera, la Siria que llaman Palestina, y la
isla de Chipre, no entrando sin embargo en este gobierno la parte
confinante de la Arabia, que era franca y privilegiada. El sexto gobierno
se componía del Egipto, de los libios sus vecinos, de Cirene y de
Barca, agregadas a este partido, y pagaba al erario real 700 talentos, y
esto sin contar el producto que daba al rey la pesca del lago Meris, n
tampoco el trigo que en raciones medidas se daba a 120.000 soldados
persas y a las tropas extranjeras a sueldo del rey en Egipto, que
suelen estar de guarnición en el fuerte blanco de Menfis. En el séptimo
gobierno estaban encabezados los satágidas, los gandarios,[292] los
dadicas y los aparitas que contribuían todos con la suma de 170
talentos. Del octavo gobierno, compuesto de Susa y de lo restante de
país de los cisios, percibía el erario 300 talentos de contribución.
XCII. Del nono gobierno, en que entraba Babilonia con lo restante
de la Asiria, sacaba el rey 1000 talentos de plata, y además 500 niños
eunucos. Del décimo gobierno, compuesto de Ecbatana con toda la
Media, de los paricanios y de los ortocoribantios, entraban en las
rentas reales 450 talentos. El undécimo gobierno componíanlo los
caspios, los pausicas, los pantimatos y los daritas, pueblos que unidos
bajo un mismo registro tributan al rey 200 talentos. Del duodécimo
gobierno, que desde los bactrianos se extendía hasta los eglos, se
sacaban 360 talentos.[293]
XCIII. El decimotercio gobierno, formado de la Páctica, de los
armenios, y gentes comarcanas hasta llegar al ponto Euxino, redituaba
a las arcas del rey 400 talentos. Del decimocuarto gobierno, al cua
estaban agregados los sagartios, los sarangas, los tamaneos, los
utios, los micos y los habitantes de las islas del mar Eritreo, en las
cuales suele confinar el rey a los reos que llaman deportados, se
percibían 600 talentos de contribución. Los sacas y los caspios
alistados en el gobierno decimoquinto, contribuían con 250 talentos a
año. Los partos, los corasmios, los sogdos y los arios, que formaban e
decimosexto, pagaban al rey 300 talentos.[294]
XCIV. Los paricanios y etíopes del Asia empadronados en e
decimoséptimo gobierno pagaban al erario real 400 talentos. A los
matienos, a los saspires y a los alarodios, pueblos unidos en e
gobierno decimoctavo, se les había impuesto la suma de 200 talentos
A los pueblos del decimonono, moscos, tibarenos, macrones
mosinecos y marsos, se impusieron 300 talentos de tributo. E
gobierno vigésimo, en que están alistados los indios, nación sin
disputa la más numerosa de cuantas han llegado a mi noticia, paga un
tributo más crecido que los demás gobiernos, que consiste en 360
talentos de oro en polvo.[295]
XCV. Ahora, pues, reducido el talento de plata babilónico al talento
euboico, de las contribuciones apuntadas resulta la suma de 9880
talentos euboicos. Multiplicado después el talento de oro en grano po
13 talentos de plata, dará esta partida la suma de 4680 talentos: as
que, hecha la suma total de dichos talentos, el tributo anual que
recogía Darío ascendía a 14.560 talentos euboicos, y esto sin inclui
en ella las partidas de quebrados.
XCVI. Estos eran los ingresos que Darío percibía del Asia y de
algunas pocas provincias de la Libia. Corriendo el tiempo, se le añadió
el tributo que después le pagaron, así las islas del Asia menor, como
los vasallos que llegó a tener en Europa, hasta la misma Tesalia. E
modo como guarda el persa sus tesoros en el erario, es derramar e
oro y la plata derretida en unas tinajas de barro hasta llenarlas, y
retirarlas después de cuajado el metal; de suerte que cuando necesita
dinero va cortando de aquellos pilones el oro y plata que para la
ocasión hubiere menester.
XCVII. Estos eran, repito, los gobiernos y las tallas de tributo
ordenadas por Darío. No he contado la Persia propia[296] entre las
provincias tributarias de la corona, por cuanto los persas en su país
son privilegiados e inmunes de contribución. Hablaré ahora de algunas
otras naciones, las cuales, si bien no tenían tributos impuestos
contribuían al rey, sin embargo, con sus donativos regulares. Tales
eran los etíopes, confinantes con el Egipto, que tienen su domicilio
cerca de la sagrada Nisa, y celebran fiestas a Dioniso, los cuales
como todos sus comarcanos, siguiendo el modo de vivir que los indios
llamados calantias, moran en las habitaciones subterráneas. Habiendo
sido conquistados por Cambises dichos etíopes y sus vecinos en la
expedición emprendida contra los otros etíopes macrobios
presentaban entonces cada tercer año y presentan aún ahora sus
donativos, reducidos a dos quénices de oro no acrisolado, a 200
maderos de ébano, a cinco niños etíopes, y a veinte grandes dientes
de elefante.[297] Tales eran asimismo los colcos, que, juntamente con
sus vecinos hasta llegar al monte Cáucaso, eran contados entre los
pueblos donatarios de la corona, pues los dominios del persa terminan
en el Cáucaso, desde el cual todo el país que se extiende hacia e
viento Bóreas en nada reconoce su imperio. Los colcos, aun en el día
hacen al persa sus regalos de cinco en cinco años, como homenajes
concertados, que consisten en cien mancebos y cien doncellas. Tales
eran los árabes, finalmente, que regalaban al rey cada año mil talentos
de incienso: y estos eran, además de los tributos, los donativos
públicos que debían hacerse al soberano.
XCVIII. Volviendo al oro en polvo que los indios, como decíamos
llevan al rey en tan grande cantidad, explicaré el modo con que lo
adquieren. La parte de la India de la cual se saca el oro, y que está
hacia donde nace el sol, es toda un mero arenal; porque ciertamente
de todos los pueblos del Asia de quienes algo puede decirse con
fundamento de verdad y de experiencia, los indios son los más vecinos
a la aurora, y los primeros moradores del verdadero oriente o lugar de
nacimiento del sol, pues lo que se extiende más allá de su país y se
acerca más a Levante es una región desierta, totalmente cubierta de
arena.[298] Muchas y diversas en lenguaje son las naciones de los
indios; unas son de nómadas o pastores, otras no; algunas de ellas
viviendo en los pantanos que forman allí los ríos, se alimentan de
peces crudos que van pescando con barcos de caña, pues hay all
cañas tales, que un solo canuto basta para formar un barco. Estos
indios de las lagunas visten una ropa hecha de cierta especie de junco
que después de segado en los ríos y machacado, van tejiendo a
manera de estera, haciendo de él una especie de petos con que se
visten.
XCIX. Otros indios que llaman padeos y que habitan hacia la
aurora, son no solo pastores de profesión, sino que comen crudas las
reses, y sus usos se dice son los siguientes: Cualquiera de sus
paisanos que llegue a enfermar, sea hombre, sea mujer, ha de
servirles de comida. ¿Es varón el infeliz doliente? Los hombres que le
tratan con más intimidad son los que le matan, dando por razón que
corrompido él con su mal llegaría a corromper las carnes de los
demás. El infeliz resiste y niega su enfermedad; mas ellos por eso no
le perdonan, antes bien lo matan y hacen de su carne un banquete
¿Es mujer la enferma? Sus más amigas y allegadas son las que hacen
con ella lo mismo que suelen los hombres con sus amigos enfermos
Si alguno de ellos llega a la vejez, y son pocos de este número
procuran quitarle la vida antes que enferme de puro viejo, y muerto se
lo comen alegremente.
C. Otros indios hay cuya costumbre es no matar animal alguno, no
sembrar planta ninguna, ni vivir en casas. Su alimento son las hierbas
y entre ellas tienen una planta que la tierra produce naturalmente, de la
cual se levanta una vaina, y dentro de ella se cría una especie de
semilla del tamaño del mijo, que cogida con la misma vainilla van
comiendo después de cocida. El infeliz que entre ellos enferma se va a
despoblado y tiéndese en el campo, sin que nadie se cuide de él, n
doliente ni después de muerto.
CI. El concúbito de todos estos indios mencionados, se hace en
público, nada más contenido ni modesto que el de los ganados. Todos
tienen el mismo color que los etíopes: el esperma que dejan en las
hembras para la generación no es blanco, como en los demás
hombres, sino negro como lo es el que despiden los etíopes. Verdad
es que estos indios, los más remotos de los persas y situados hacia e
Noto, jamás fueron súbditos de Darío.
CII. Otra nación de indios se halla fronteriza a la ciudad de
Caspatiro y a la provincia Páctica, y situada hacia el Bóreas, al norte
de los otros indios, la cual sigue un modo de vivir parecido al de los
bactrianos; y estos indios, los guerreros más valientes entre todos, son
los que destinan a la conducción y extracción del oro citado.[299] Hacia
aquel punto no es más el país que un arenal despoblado, y en él se
crían una especie de hormigas de tamaño poco menor que el de un
perro y mayor que el de una zorra, de las cuales cazadas y cogidas all
se ven algunas en el palacio del rey de Persia. Al hacer estos animales
su hormiguero o morada subterránea, van sacando la arena a la
superficie de la tierra, como lo hacen en Grecia nuestras hormigas, a
las que se parecen del todo en la figura. La arena que sacan es oro
puro molido, y por ella van al desierto los indios señalados, del modo
siguiente: Unce cada uno a su carro tres camellos: los dos atados con
sogas a los dos extremos de las varas son machos, el que va en
medio es hembra. El indio montado sobre ella procura que sea madre
y recién parida y arrancada con violencia de sus tiernas crías, lo que
no es extraño, pues estas hembras son allí nada inferiores en ligereza
a los caballos y al mismo tiempo de robustez mucho mayor para la
carga.
CIII. No diré aquí cuál sea la figura del camello por ser bien
conocida entre los griegos; diré, sí, una particularidad que no es tan
sabida; a saber, que el camello tiene en las piernas de detrás cuatro
muslos y cuatro rodillas, y que sus partes naturales miran por entre las
piernas hacia su cola.
CIV. Uncidos de este modo al carro los camellos, salen los indios
auríferos a recoger el oro, pero siempre con la mira de llegar al luga
del pillaje en el mayor punto de los ardores del sol, tiempo en que se
sabe que las hormigas se defienden del excesivo calor escondidas en
sus hormigueros. Es de notar que los momentos en que el sol pica
más y se deja sentir más ardiente, no es a medio día como en otros
climas, sino por la mañana, empezando muy temprano, y subiendo de
punto hasta las diez del día, hora en que es mucho mayor el calor que
se siente en la India que no en Grecia al medio día, y por eso la llaman
los indios hora del baño. Pero al llegar al medio día, el calor que se
siente entre los indios es el mismo que suele sentirse en otros países
Por la tarde, cuando empieza el sol a declinar, calienta allí del mismo
modo que en otras partes después de recién salido; mas después se
va templando de tal manera y refrescando el día, que al ponerse el so
se siente ya mucho frío.[300]
CV. Apenas llegan los indios al lugar de la presa, muy provistos de
costales, los van llenando con la mayor diligencia posible, y luego
toman la vuelta por el mismo camino, en lo cual se dan tanta prisa
porque las hormigas, según dicen ellos, los rastrean por el olor, y luego
que lo perciben salen a perseguirlos, y siendo, como aseguran, de
ligereza tal a que no llega animal alguno, si los indios no cogieran la
delantera mientras ellas se van reuniendo, ni uno solo de los
colectores de oro escapara con vida. En la huida los camellos machos
siendo menos ágiles, se cansan antes que las hembras, y los van
soltando de la cuerda, primero uno y después otro, haciéndolos segui
detrás del carro, al paso que las hembras, que tiran en las varas con la
memoria y deseo de sus crías, nada van aflojando de su corrida. Esta
en suma, según nos lo cuentan los persas, es la manera con que
recogen los indios tanta abundancia de oro, sin faltarles con todo otro
oro, bien que en menor copia, sacado de las minas del país.
CVI. Advierto que a los puntos extremos de la tierra habitada les
han cabido en suerte las cosas más bellas y preciosas, así como a la
Grecia ha tocado la fortuna de lograr para sí las estaciones más
templadas en un cielo más dulce y apacible. Por la parte de Levante, la
primera de las tierras habitadas es la India, como acabo de decir, y
desde luego vemos allí que las bestias cuadrúpedas, como también las
aves, son mucho mayores que en otras regiones, a excepción de los
caballos, que en grandeza quedan muy atrás a los de Media llamados
niseos.[301] En segundo lugar, vemos en la India infinita copia de oro, ya
sacado de sus minas, ya revuelto por los ríos entre las arenas, ya
robado, como dije, a las hormigas. Lo tercero, encuéntranse allí ciertos
árboles agrestes que en vez de fruta llevan una especie de lana, que
no solo en belleza sino también en bondad aventaja a la de las ovejas
y sirve a los indios para tejer sus vestidos.[302]
CVII. Por la parte de mediodía, la última de las tierras pobladas es
la Arabia, única región del orbe que naturalmente produce el incienso
la mirra, la casia, el cinamomo y lédano, especies todas que no
recogen fácilmente los árabes, si se exceptúa la mirra. Para la cosecha
del incienso sírvense del sahumerio del estoraque, una de las drogas
que nos traen a Grecia los fenicios; y la causa de sahumarle al irlo a
recoger es porque hay unas sierpes aladas de pequeño tamaño y de
color vario por sus manchas, que son las mismas que a bandadas
hacen sus expediciones hacia el Egipto, las que guardan tanto los
árboles del incienso, que en cada uno se hallan muchas de ellas, y son
tan amigas de estos árboles que no hay medio de apartarlas sino a
fuerza de humo del estoraque mencionado.
CVIII. Añaden los árabes sobre este punto, que todo su país
estuviera a pique de verse lleno de estas serpientes si no cayera sobre
ellas la misma calamidad que, como sabemos, suele igualmente
suceder a las víboras, cosa en que deja verse, según nos persuade
toda buena razón, un insigne rasgo de la sabiduría y providencia
divina, pues vemos que a todos los animales tímidos a un tiempo po
instinto y aptos para el sustento común de la vida, los hizo Dios muy
fecundos, sin duda a fin de que, aunque comidos ordinariamente, no
llegaran a verse del todo consumidos; mientras los otros po
naturaleza fieros y perjudiciales suelen ser poco fecundos en sus
crías.[303] Se ve esto especialmente en las liebres y conejos, los cuales
siendo presa de las fieras y aves de rapiña, y caza de los hombres
son una raza con todo tan extremadamente fecunda, que preñada ya
concibe de nuevo, en lo que se distingue de cualquiera otro animal; y a
un mismo tiempo lleva en su vientre una cría con pelo, otra sin pelo
aún, otra en embrión que se va formando, y otra nuevamente
concebida en esperma. Tal es la fecundidad de la liebre y del conejo
Al contrario, la leona, fiera la más valiente y atrevida de todas, pare
una sola vez en su vida y un cachorro solamente, arrojando
juntamente la matriz al parirlo; y la causa de esto es porque apenas
empieza el cachorrito a moverse dentro de la leona, cuando sus uñas
que tiene más agudas que ninguna otra fiera, rasga la matriz, y cuanto
más va después creciendo, tanto más la araña con fuerza ya mayor, y
por fin, vecino al parto, nada deja sano en el útero, dejándolo
enteramente herido y destrozado.
CIX. Así que si las víboras y sierpes voladoras de los árabes
nacieran sin fracaso alguno por su orden natural, no quedara hombre a
vida en aquel país. Pero sucede que al tiempo mismo del coito, cuando
el macho está arrojando la esperma, la mala hembra, asiéndole de
cuello y apretándole con toda su fuerza, no le suelta hasta que ha
comido y tragado su cabeza. Muere entonces el macho, mas después
halla la hembra su castigo en sus mismos hijuelos, que antes de nacer
como para vengar a su padre, la van comiendo las entrañas, de modo
que para salir a luz se abren camino por el vientre rasgado de su
misma madre. No sucede así con las otras serpientes, en nada
enemigas ni perjudiciales al hombre, las que después de poner sus
huevos van sacando una caterva sin número de hijuelos. Respecto a
las víboras, observamos que las hay en todos los países del mundo
pero las sierpes voladoras solo en Arabia se ven ir a bandadas, lo que
las hace parecer muchas en número, y es cierto que no se ven en
otras regiones.
CX. Hemos referido el modo como los árabes recogen el incienso
he aquí el que emplean para recoger la casia. Para ir a esta cosecha
antes de todo se cubren no solo el cuerpo sino también la cara con
cueros y otras pieles, dejando descubiertos únicamente los ojos
porque la casia, nacida en una profunda laguna, tiene apostados
alrededor ciertos alados avechuchos muy parecidos a los murciélagos
de singular graznido y de muy gran fuerza, y así defendidos los árabes
con sus pieles los van apartando de los ojos mientras recogen su
cosecha de casia.
CXI. Más admirable es aún el medio que usan para reunir e
cinamomo, si bien no saben decirnos positivamente ni el sitio donde
nace, ni la calidad de la tierra que lo produce; infiriendo solamente
algunos por muy probables conjeturas que debe nacer en los mismos
parajes en que se crió Dioniso. Dícennos de esta planta que llegan a
Arabia unas grandes aves llevando aquellos palitos que nosotros
enseñados por los fenicios llamamos cinamomo, y los conducen a sus
nidos formados de barro encima de unos peñascos tan altos y
escarpados que es imposible que suba a ellos hombre nacido. Mas
para bajar de los nidos el cinamomo han sabido los árabes ingeniarse
pues partiendo en grandes pedazos los bueyes, asnos y otras bestias
muertas, cargan con ellos, y después de dejarlos cerca del lugar donde
saben que está su manida, se retiran luego muy lejos: bajan volando a
la presa aquellas aves carniceras, y cargadas con aquellos enormes
cuartos los van subiendo y amontonando en su nido, que no pudiendo
llevar tanto peso, se desgaja de la peña y viene a dar en el suelo
Vuelven los árabes a recoger el despeñado cinamomo, que vendido
después por ellos pasa a los demás países.
CXII. Aun tiene más de extraño y maravilloso la droga del lédano
o ládano como los árabes lo llaman, que nacida en el más hediondo
lugar es la que mejor huele de todas. Cosa extraña por cierto; va
criándose en las barbas de las cabras y de los machos de cabrío, de
donde se le extrae a la manera que el moho del tronco de los árboles
Es el más provechoso de todos los ungüentos para mil usos, y de é
muy especialmente se sirven los árabes para sus perfumes.
CXIII. Basta ya de hablar de estos, con decir que la Arabia entera
es un paraíso de fragancia suavísima y casi divina. Y pasando a otro
asunto, hay en Arabia dos castas de ovejas muy raras y maravillosas
que no se ven en ninguna otra región: una tiene tal y tan larga cola
que no es menor de tres codos cumplidos,[304] y es claro que si dejaran
a estas ovejas que las arrastrasen por el suelo, no pudieran menos de
lastimarlas con muchas heridas; mas para remediar este daño, todo
pastor, haciendo allí de carpintero, forma pequeños carros que
después ata a la gran cola, de modo que cada oveja arrastra la suya
montada en su carro: la otra casta tiene tan ancha la cola, que tendrá
más de un codo.
CXIV. Por la parte de poniente al retirarnos del mediodía sigue la
Etiopía, última tierra habitada por aquel lado, que tiene asimismo la
ventaja de producir mucho oro, de criar elefantes de enormes dientes
de llevar en sus bosques todo género de árboles y el ébano mismo, y
de formar hombres muy altos, muy bellos y vividores.[305]
CXV. Tales son las extremidades del continente, así en el Asia
como en la Libia; de la parte extrema que en la Europa cae hacia
poniente, confieso no tener bastantes luces para decir algo de positivo
No puedo asentir a lo que se dice de cierto río llamado por los
bárbaros Erídano, que desemboca en el mar hacia el viento Bóreas, y
del cual se dice que nos viene el electro,[306] ni menos saldré fiador de
que haya ciertas islas llamadas Casitéridas de donde proceda e
estaño; pues en lo primero el nombre mismo de Erídano, siendo griego
y nada bárbaro, clama por sí que ha sido hallado y acomodado po
alguno de los poetas; y en lo segundo, por más que procuró averigua
el punto con mucho empeño, nunca pude dar con un testigo de vista
que me informase de cómo el mar se difunde y dilata más allá de la
Europa, de suerte que a mi juicio el estaño y el electro nos vienen de
algún rincón muy retirado de la Europa, pero no de fuera de su recinto.
CXVI. Por el lado del norte parece que se halla en Europa
copiosísima abundancia de oro, pero tampoco sabré decir dónde se
halla, ni de dónde se extrae. Cuéntase que lo roban a los grifos los
monóculos arimaspos;[307] pero es harto grosera la fábula para que
pueda adoptarse ni creerse que existan en el mundo hombres que
tengan un ojo solo en la cara, y sean en lo restante como los demás
En suma, paréceme acerca de las partes extremas del continente, que
son una especie de terreno muy diferente de los otros, y como
encierran unos géneros que son tenidos acá por los mejores, se nos
figura también que allí son todo preciosidades.
CXVII. Hay en el Asia, pues tiempo es de volver a ella, cierta
llanura cerrada en un cerco formado por un monte que se extiende
alrededor de ella, teniendo cinco quebradas. Esta llanura, estando
situada en los confines de los corasmios, de los hircanios, de los
partos, de los sarangas y de los tamaneos, pertenecía antes a los
primeros; pero después que el imperio pasó a los persas, pasó ella a
ser un señorío o patrimonio de la corona. Del monte que rodea dicha
llanura nace un gran río, por nombre Aces,[308] que conducido hacia las
quebradas, y sangrado por ellas con canales, iba antes regando las
referidas tierras, derivando su acequia cada cual de aquellos pueblos
por su respectiva quebrada. Mas después que estas naciones pasaron
al dominio de los persas, se les hizo en este punto un notable perjuicio
por haber mandado el rey que en dichas quebradas se levantasen
otras tantas presas con sus compuertas; de lo cual necesariamente
provino que, cerrado todo desaguadero, no pudiendo el río tene
salida, se difundiera por la llanura y la convirtiera en un mar. Los
pueblos circunvecinos, que solían antes aprovecharse del río
sangrado, no pudiendo ya valerse de su agua, viéronse muy pronto en
la mayor calamidad, pues aunque llueve allí en invierno como suele en
otras partes, echaban de menos en verano aquella agua del río para i
regando sus sementeras ordinarias de panizo y de ajonjolí. Viendo
pues, aquellos que nada de agua se les concedía, así hombres como
mujeres fueron de tropel a la corte de los persas, y fijos allí todos a las
puertas de palacio, llenaban el aire hasta el cielo de gritos y lamentos
Con esto el rey mandó que para aquel pueblo que mayor necesidad
tenía del agua, se les abriera la compuerta de su propia presa, y que
se volviera a cerrar después de bien regada la comarca y harta ya de
beber; y así por turno y conforme a la mayor necesidad fueran
abriéndose las compuertas de las acequias respectivas. Este, según
oigo y creo muy bien, fue uno de los arbitrios para las arcas reales
cobrando, además del tributo ya tasado, no pequeños derechos en la
repartición de aquellas aguas.
CXVIII. Pero dejando esto, volvamos a los septemviros de la
célebre conjuración; uno de los cuales, Intafrenes, tuvo un fin bien
desastrado, a que su misma altivez e insolencia le precipitaron. Pues
habiéndose establecido la ley de que fuera concedido a cualquiera de
los siete la facultad de presentarse al rey sin preceder recado, excepto
en el caso de hallarse en el momento en compañía de sus mujeres
Intafrenes quiso entrar en palacio poco después de la conjuración
teniendo que tratar no sé qué negocio con Darío, y en fuerza de su
privilegio, como uno de los siete, pretendía entrada franca sin
introductor alguno; mas el portero de palacio y el paje encargado de
los recados se la negaban, alegando por razón que estaba entonces e
rey visitando a una de sus esposas. Sospechó Intafrenes que era
aquel uno de los enredos y falsedades de los palaciegos, y sin más
tardanza saca al punto su alfanje, corta a entrambos, al paje y a
portero, orejas y narices, ensártalas a prisa con la brida de su caballo
y poniéndolas luego al cuello de estos, los despacha adornados con
aquella especie de collar. Preséntanse entrambos al rey, y le declaran
el motivo de su trágica violencia en aquella mutilación.
CXIX. Receló Darío en gran manera que una tal demostración se
hubiese hecho de común acuerdo y consentimiento de los seis
conjurados, y haciéndolos venir a su presencia uno a uno, iba
explorando su ánimo para averiguar si habían sido todos cómplices en
aquel desafuero. Pero viendo claramente que ninguno había tenido en
ello participación, mandó que prendieran no solo a Intafrenes, sino
también a sus hijos con todos los demás de su casa y familia
sospechando por varios indicios que tramaba aquel con todos sus
parientes alguna sublevación,[309] y luego de presos los condenó a
muerte. En esta situación, la esposa de Intafrenes, presentándose a
menudo a las puertas de palacio, no cesaba de llorar y dar grandes
voces y alaridos, hasta que el mismo Darío se movió a compasión con
su llanto y dolor. Mándale, pues, decir por un mensajero: «Señora, en
atención y respeto a vuestra persona, accede el rey Darío a dar e
perdón a uno de los presos, concediéndoos la gracia de que lo
escojáis vos misma a vuestro arbitrio y voluntad». «Pues si el rey
respondió ella después de haberlo pensado, me concede la vida de
uno de los presos, escojo entre todos la vida de mi hermano»
Informado Darío y admirado mucho de aquella respuesta y elección, le
hace replicar: «Señora, quiere el rey que le digáis la razón por que
dejando a vuestro marido y también a vuestros hijos, preferís la vida de
un hermano, que ni os toca de tan cerca como vuestros hijos, ni puede
serviros de tanto consuelo como vuestro esposo». A lo cual contestó la
mujer: «Si quieren los cielos, ¡oh señor!, no ha de faltarme otro marido
del cual conciba otros hijos, si pierdo los que me dieron los dioses
Otro hermano sé bien que no me queda esperanza alguna de volver a
lograrlo, habiendo muerto ya nuestros padres;[310] por este motivo me
goberné, señor, en mi respuesta y elección». Pareció tan acertada la
razón a Darío, que prendado de la discreción de aquella matrona, no
solo le hizo gracia de su hermano que escogía, sino que además le
concedió la vida de su hijo mayor, por quien no pedía. A todos los
demás los hizo morir Darío, acabando así con todos sus deudos
Intafrenes, uno de los siete grandes de la liga, poco después de
recobrado el imperio.
CXX. Volviendo a tomar el hilo de la historia, casi por el mismo
tiempo en que enfermó Cambises sucedió un caso muy extraño
Hallábase en Sardes por gobernador un señor de nación persa, po
nombre Oretes, colocado por Ciro en aquel empleo, y se empeñó en
ejecutar el atentado más caprichoso e inhumano que darse puede
cual fue dar muerte a Polícrates el samio, de quien, ni de obra ni de
palabra había recibido nunca el menor disgusto, y lo que es más, no
habiéndole visto ni hablado en los días de su vida. Por lo que mira a
motivo que tuvo Oretes para desear prender y perder a Polícrates
pretenden algunos que naciese de lo que voy a referir. Estaba Oretes
en cierta ocasión sentado en una sala de palacio en compañía de otro
señor también persa, llamado Mitrobates, entonces gobernador de la
provincia de Dascilio,[311] y de palabra en palabra, como suele, vino la
conversación a degenerar en pendencia. Altercábase en ella con calo
acerca de quién tenía mayor valor y méritos personales, y Mitrobates
empezó a insultar a Oretes en sus barbas, diciendo: «¿Tú, hombre, te
atreves a hablar de valor y servicios personales, no habiendo sido
capaz de conquistar a la corona y unir a tu satrapía la isla de Samos
que tienes tan cercana, y es de suyo tan fácil de sujetar que un
particular de ella con solos quince infantes se alzó con su dominio en
que se mantiene hasta el día?». Pretenden algunos, como dije, que
vivamente penetrado Oretes en su corazón de este insulto, no tanto
desease vengarle en la persona del que se lo dijo, cuanto borrarlo con
la ruina de Polícrates, ocasión inocente de aquella afrenta.
CXXI. No faltan otros con todo, aunque más pocos, que lo refieren
de otro modo. Dicen que Oretes envió a Samos un diputado para pedi
no sé qué cosa, que no expresan los narradores, a Polícrates, que
echado sobre unos cojines en su gabinete estaba casualmente
entreteniéndose con Anacreonte de Teos.[312] Entra en esto el diputado
de Oretes y empieza a dar su embajada. Polícrates entretanto, ora a
propósito quisiera dar a entender cuán poco contaba con Oretes, ora
sucediese por descuido y falta de reflexión, vuelto como estaba e
rostro a la pared, ni lo volvió para mirar al enviado, ni le respondió
palabra.
CXXII. De estos dos motivos que suelen darse acerca de la
muerte de Polícrates, adopte cada cual el que más le acomode, nada
me importa. En cuanto a Oretes, como viviese de asiento en
Magnesia, ciudad fundada en las orillas del río Menandro, y estuviese
bien informado del espíritu ambicioso de Polícrates, enviole a Samos
por embajador a Mirso, hijo de Giges y natural de Lidia. Sabía Oretes
que Polícrates había formado el proyecto de alzarse con el imperio de
mar, habiendo sido en este designio el primero de los griegos, a
menos de los que tengo noticia. Verdad es que no quiero en esto
comprender ni a Minos de Cnoso, ni a otro alguno anterior, si lo hubo
que en los tiempos fabulosos hubiese tenido el dominio de los
mares;[313] solo afirmo que en la era humana, que así llaman a los
últimos tiempos ya conocidos, fue Polícrates el primer griego que se
lisonjeó con la esperanza de sujetar a su mando la Jonia e islas
adyacentes. Conociendo, pues, Oretes el flaco de Polícrates, le envía
una embajada concebida en estos términos: «Oretes dice a Polícrates
Estoy informado de que meditas grandes empresas, pero que tus
medios no alcanzan a tus proyectos. Si quieres, pues, ahora seguir m
consejo, te aseguro que con ello conseguirás provecho, y me salvarás
la vida; pues el rey Cambises, según sé ciertamente, anda al presente
maquinándome la muerte. En suma, quiero de ti que vengas por mí y
por mis tesoros, de los que tomarás cuanto gustares, dejando el resto
para mí. Ten por seguro que por falta de dinero no dejarás de
conquistar la Grecia entera. Y si acerca de los tesoros no quisieres
fiarte de mi palabra, envíame el sujeto que tuvieres de mayo
satisfacción, a quien me ofrezco a mostrárselos».
CXXIII. Oyó Polícrates con mucho gusto tal embajada, y determinó
complacer a Oretes. Sediento el hombre de dinero, envió ante todo
para verlo a su secretario, que era Menandrio, hijo de Menandrio, e
mismo que no mucho después consagró en el Hereo[314] los adornos
todos muy ricos y vistosos que había tenido Polícrates en su mismo
aposento. Sabiendo Oretes que aquel explorador era un personaje de
respeto, toma ocho cofres y manda embutirlos de piedras hasta arriba
dejando solo por llenar una pequeña parte la más vecina a los labios
de aquellos, y después cubre de oro toda aquella superficie; ata muy
bien sus cofres, y los deja patentes a la vista. Llegó poco después
Menandrio, vio las arcas de oro, y dio cuenta luego a Polícrates.
CXXIV. Informado este del oro, a pesar de sus privados que se lo
aconsejaban, y a pesar asimismo de sus adivinos que le auguraban
mala suerte, no veía la hora de partir en busca de las arcas. Aun hubo
más, porque la hija de Polícrates tuvo entre sueños una visión infausta
pareciéndole ver en ella a su padre colgado en el aire, y que Zeus le
estaba lavando y el Sol ungiendo. En fuerza de tales agüeros
deshaciéndose la hija en palabras y extremos, pugnaba en persuadir a
padre no quisiera presentarse a Oretes, tan empeñada en impedir e
viaje, que al ir ya Polícrates a embarcarse en su galera, no dudó en
presentársele cual ave de mal agüero. Amenazó Polícrates a su hija
que si volvía salvo tarde o nunca había de darle marido. «¡Ojalá
padre, sea así!, responde ella; que antes quisiera tarde o nunca tene
marido, que dejar de tener tan presto un padre tan bueno».
CXXV. Por fin, despreciando los consejos de todos, embarcose
Polícrates para ir a verse con Oretes, llevando gran séquito de amigos
y compañeros, entre quienes se hallaba el médico más afamado que a
la sazón se conocía, Democedes, hijo de Califonte, natural de Crotona
No bien acabó Polícrates de poner el pie en Magnesia, cuando se le
hizo morir con una muerte cruel, muerte indigna de su persona e
igualmente de su espíritu magnánimo y elevado, pues ninguno se
hallará entre los tiranos o príncipes griegos, a excepción solamente de
los que tuvieron los siracusanos, que en lo grande y magnífico de los
hechos pueda competir con Polícrates el samio.[315] Pero no contento e
fementido persa con haber hecho en Polícrates tal carnicería que de
puro horror no me atrevo a describir, le colgó después en un aspa
Oretes envió libres a su patria a los individuos de la comitiva que supo
eran naturales de Samos, diciéndoles que bien podían y aun debían
darle las gracias por acabar de librarlos de un tirano; pero a los criados
que habían seguido a su amo los retuvo en su poder y los trató como
esclavos. Entretanto, en el cadáver de Polícrates en el aspa íbase
verificando puntualmente la visión nocturna de su hija, siendo lavado
por Zeus siempre que llovía, y ungido por el sol siempre que con sus
rayos hacia que manase del cadáver un humor corrompido. En suma
la fortuna de Polícrates, antes siempre próspera, vino al cabo a
terminar, según la predicción profética de Amasis, rey de Egipto, en e
más desastroso paradero.
CXXVI. Pero no tardó mucho en vengar el cielo el execrable
suplicio dado a Polícrates en la cabeza de Oretes, y fue del siguiente
modo: Después de la muerte de Cambises, mientras que duró e
reinado de los magos, estuvo Oretes en Sardes quieto y sosegado, sin
cuidar nada de volver por la causa de los persas infamemente
despojados del imperio por los medos; antes bien, entonces fue
cuando, aprovechándose de la perturbación actual del estado, entre
otros muchos atentados que cometió, quitó la vida no solo a
Mitrobates, general de Dascilio, el mismo que le había antes zaherido
por no haberse apoderado de los dominios de Polícrates, sino también
a Cranaspes, hijo del mismo, sin atender a que eran entrambos
personajes muy principales entre los persas. Y no paró aquí la
insolencia de Oretes, pues, habiéndole después enviado Darío un
correo, y no dándole mucho gusto las órdenes que de su parte le traía
armole una emboscada en el camino y le mandó asesinar a la vuelta
haciendo que nunca más se supiese noticia alguna ni del posta ni de
su caballo.
CXXVII. Luego que Darío se vio en el trono, deseaba muy de
veras hacer en Oretes un ejemplar, así en castigo de todas sus
maldades, como mayormente de las muertes dadas a Mitrobates y a
su hijo. Con todo, no le parecía del caso enviar allá un ejército para
acometerle declaradamente desde luego, parte por verse en e
principio del mando, no bien sosegadas las inquietudes públicas de
imperio, parte por considerar cuán prevenido y pertrechado estaría
Oretes, manteniendo por un lado cerca de su persona un cuerpo de mi
persas, sus alabarderos, y teniendo por otro en su provincia y bajo su
dominio a los frigios, a los lidios y a los jonios. Así que Darío
queriendo obviar estos inconvenientes, toma el medio de llamar a los
persas más principales de la corte y hablarles en estos términos
«Amigos, ¿habrá entre vosotros quien quiera encargarse de una
empresa de la corona, que pide maña o ingenio, y no ejército n
fuerza? Bien sabéis que donde alcanza la prudencia de la política, no
es menester mano armada. Hágoos saber que deseo muchísimo que
alguno de vosotros procure presentarme vivo o muerto a Oretes
hombre que además de ser desconocido a los persas, a quienes en
nada ha servido hasta aquí, es al mismo tiempo un violento tirano
llevando ya cometidas muchas maldades contra nos, una la de habe
hecho morir al general Mitrobates, juntamente con su hijo, otra la de
haber asesinado a mis enviados que le llevaban la orden de
presentársenos, mostrando en todo un orgullo y contumacia
intolerables. Es preciso, pues, anticipársele, a fin de impedir con su
muerte que pueda maquinar algún atentado mayor contra los persas».
 CXXVIII. Tal fue la pregunta y propuesta hecha por Darío, al cua
en el punto mismo se le ofrecieron hasta 30 de los cortesanos
presentes, pretendiendo cada cual para sí la ejecución de la demanda
Dispuso Darío que la suerte decidiera la porfía, y habiendo recaído en
Bageo, hijo de Artontes, toma este desde luego un expediente muy
oportuno. Escribe muchas cartas que fuesen otras tantas órdenes
sobre varios puntos, luego las cierra con el sello de Darío, y con ellas
se pone en camino para Sardes. Apenas llegado, se presenta a
Oretes, y delante de él va sacando las cartas de una en una, dándolas
a leer al secretario real pues entre los persas todo gobernador tiene su
secretario de oficio nombrado por el rey.[316] Bageo, al dar a leer y a
intimar aquellas órdenes reales, pretendía sondear la fidelidad de los
alabarderos, y tentar si podía sublevarlos contra su general Oretes
Viendo, pues, que llenos de respeto por su soberano ponían sobre su
cabeza las cartas rubricadas y recibían las órdenes intimadas con toda
veneración, da por fin a leer otro despacho real concebido en esta
forma: «Darío, vuestro soberano, os prohíbe a vosotros, persas, servi
de alabarderos a Oretes». No bien se les intimó la orden, cuando dejan
todos sus picas. Animose Bageo a dar el último paso, viendo que en
aquello obedecían al rey, entregando al secretario la última carta en
que venía la orden en estos términos: «Manda el rey Darío a los
persas, sus buenos y fieles vasallos en Sardes, que maten a Oretes»
Acabar de oír la lectura de la carta, desenvainar los alfanjes los
alabarderos y hacer pedazos a Oretes, todo fue en un tiempo. Así fue
como Polícrates el samio vino a quedar vengado del persa Oretes.
CXXIX. Después que llegaron a Susa, confiscados los bienes que
habían sido de Oretes, sucedió dentro de pocos días que al bajar de
caballo el rey Darío en una de sus monterías, se le torció un pie con
tanta fuerza que, dislocado el talón, se salió del todo de su encaje
Echó mano desde luego para la cura de sus médicos quirúrgicos
creído desde atrás que los que tenía a su servicio traídos del Egipto
eran en su profesión los primeros del universo. Pero sucedió que los
físicos egipcios, a fuerza de medicinar el talón, lo pusieron con la cura
peor de lo que había estado en la dislocación. Siete días enteros
habían pasado con sus noches en que la fuerza del dolor no había
permitido al rey cerrar los ojos, cuando al octavo día, en que se hallaba
peor, quiso la fortuna que uno le diese noticia de la grande habilidad
del médico de Crotona, Democedes, de quien acaso había oído habla
hallándose en Sardes. Manda al instante Darío que hagan venir a
Democedes, y habiéndolo hallado entre los esclavos de Oretes, tan
abyecto y despreciado como el que más, lo presentaron del mismo
modo a la vista del rey, arrastrando sus cadenas y mal cubierto de
harapos.
CXXX. Estando en pie el pobre esclavo, preguntole el mismo
Darío en presencia de todos los circunstantes si era verdad que
supiera medicina. Democedes, con el temor de que si decía
llanamente la verdad no tenía ya esperanza de poder volver a Grecia
no respondía que la supiese. Trasluciéndose a Darío que aque
esclavo tergiversaba, hablando solo a medias palabras, mandó a
punto traer allí los azotes y aguijones. La vista de tales instrumentos y
el miedo del inminente castigo hizo hablar más claro a Democedes
quien dijo que no sabía muy bien la medicina, pero que había
practicado con un buen médico. En una palabra, dejose Darío en
manos del nuevo médico, y como este le aplicase remedios y fomentos
suaves, después de los fuertes antes usados en la cura, logró primero
que pudiera el rey recobrar el sueño perdido, y después de muy breve
tiempo le dejó enteramente sano, cuando Darío había ya desconfiado
de poder andar perfectamente en toda su vida. Al verse sano el rey
quiso regalar al médico griego con dos pares de grillos de oro macizo
y al irlos a recibir, pregúntale con donaire Democedes, si en pago de
haberle librado de andar siempre cojo, le doblaba el mal su majestad
dándole un grillo por cada pierna. Cayó en gracia a Darío el donaire
del médico, y le mandó fuese a visitar sus esposas. Decían por los
salones los eunucos que le conducían: «Señora, este es el que dio
vida y salud al rey nuestro amo y señor». Las reinas, muy alegres y
agradecidas, iban cada una por sí sacando del arca un azafate lleno
de oro, y el oro y el azafate del mismo metal todo lo regalaban a
Democedes. La magnificencia de las reinas en aquel regalo fue tan
extremada, que un criado de Democedes, llamado Escitón, recogiendo
para sí únicamente los granos que de los azafates caían, juntó una
grandiosa suma de dinero.
CXXXI. El buen Democedes, ya que de sus aventuras hacemos
mención, dejando a Crotona su patria, como referiré, fue a vivir con
Polícrates. Vivía antes en Crotona en casa de su mismo padre
hombre de condición áspera y dura, y no pudiendo ya sufrirle por más
tiempo, fue a establecerse en Egina. Allí, desde el primer año de su
domicilio, aunque se hallaba desprovisto y falto todavía de los hierros e
instrumentos de su profesión, dejó con todo muy atrás a los primeros
cirujanos del país; por lo que al segundo año los eginetas le
asalariaron para el público con un talento, al tercer año le condujeron
los atenienses por cien minas, y Polícrates al cuarto por dos
talentos:[317] por estos pasos vino Democedes a Samos. La fama de
este insigne profesor ganó tanto crédito a los médicos de Crotona, que
eran tenidos por los más excelentes de toda la Grecia; después de los
cuales se daba el segundo lugar a los médicos de Cirene. En la misma
Grecia los médicos de Argos pasaban a la sazón por los más hábiles
de todos.
CXXXII. De resultas, pues, de la cura del rey, se le puso a
Democedes una gran casa en Susa, y se le dio cubierto en la mesa
real, como comensal honorario de Darío, de suerte que nada le
hubiese quedado que desear, si no le trajera molestado siempre e
deseo de volver a su querida Grecia. No había otro hombre ni otro
privado como Democedes para el rey, de cuyo favor se valió
especialmente en dos casos; el uno cuando logró con su mediación
que el rey perdonase la vida a sus médicos de Egipto, a quienes po
haber sido vencidos en competencia con el griego había condenado
Darío a ser empalados; el otro cuando obtuvo la libertad para cierto
adivino eleo, a quien veía confundido y maltratado con los demás
esclavos que habían sido de la comitiva de Polícrates.
CXXXIII. Entre otras novedades no mucho después de dicha cura
sucedió un incidente de consideración a la princesa Atosa, hija de Ciro
y esposa de Darío, a la cual se le formó en los pechos un tumor que
una vez abierto se convirtió en llaga, la cual iba tomando incremento
Mientras el mal no fue mucho, la princesa lo ocultaba por rubor sin
hablar palabra; mas cuando vio que se hacía de consideración se
resolvió a llamar a Democedes y hacer que lo viese. El médico le dio
palabra de que sin falta la curaría, pero con pacto y condición de que
la princesa jurase hacerle una gracia que él quería suplicarle
asegurándola de antemano que nada le pediría de que ella pudiera
avergonzarse.
CXXXIV. Sanada ya Atosa por obra de Democedes, estando en
cama con Darío, hablole así, instruida por su médico de antemano
«¿No me diréis, señor, por qué tenéis ociosa tanta tropa sin emprende
conquista alguna y sin dilatar el imperio de Persia? A un hombre
grande como vos, oh Darío, a un príncipe joven, al soberano más
poderoso del orbe, el honor le está pidiendo de justicia que haga ver a
todos, con el esplendor de sus proezas, que los persas tienen a su
frente un héroe que los dirige. Por dos motivos os conviene obrar así
por el honor, para que conozcan los persas que sois un soberano
digno del trono que ocupáis; y por razón de estado, para que los
súbditos afanados en la guerra no tengan lugar de armaros alguna
sublevación. Y ahora que os veo en la flor de la edad quisiera miraros
más coronado de laureles, pues bien sabéis que el vigor del espíritu
crece con la actividad del cuerpo, y al paso que envejece el último
suele aquel ir menguando hasta quedar al fin ofuscado o del todo
extinguido».[318] En esta forma repetía Atosa las lecciones de su
médico. «Me hablas, Atosa, responde Darío, como si leyeras los
pensamientos y designios de mi espíritu; pues quiero que sepas que
estoy resuelto ya a emprender una expedición contra los escitas
haciendo a este fin un puente de naves que una entre sí los dos
continentes de Asia y Europa; y te aseguro, mujer, que todo lo verás
en breve ejecutado». «Meditadlo antes, señor, le replica Atosa; dejad
por ahora esos escitas, que ni son primicias convenientes para
vuestras armas victoriosas, y son víctimas seguras por otra parte
siempre que las acometáis. Creedme, caro Darío; acometed de prime
golpe a la Grecia, de la cual oigo hablar tanto y decir tales cosas, que
me han dado deseos de verme pronto rodeada aquí de doncellas
laconias, argivas otras, unas áticas, otras corintias. Y no parece sino
que lo disponen los dioses, que os han traído un hombre el más apto
de todos para poder iros informando punto por punto de todas las
cosas de la Grecia, el buen médico que tan bien os curó el pie
dislocado». «Mujer, respondió Darío, si te parece mejor acomete
antes a la Grecia, creo sería del caso enviar delante nuestros
exploradores conducidos por el médico que dices, para que
informados ante todo y aun testigos oculares del estado de la Grecia
puedan instruirnos después, y con esta ventaja podremos acomete
mejor a los griegos».
CXXXV. Dicho y hecho, pues apenas deja verse la luz del día
cuando Darío llama a su presencia a quince de sus persas, hombres
todos de consideración, y les ordena dos cosas: una, ir a observar las
costas de la Grecia conducidos por Democedes; otra, que vigilen
siempre para que no se les escape su conductor, al cual de todos
modos manda lo devuelvan a palacio. Instruidos así los persas, hace
Darío venir a Democedes y pídele que después de haber conducido
algunos persas alrededor de la Grecia, sin dejar cosa que no les haga
ver, tenga a bien dar la vuelta a la corte. Al mismo tiempo le convida a
cargar con todos sus muebles preciosos para regalarlos a su padre y
hermanos, en vez de los cuales le daría después otros más numerosos
y mejores, para lo cual le cedía desde luego una barca bien abastecida
de provisiones, que cargada con aquellos presentes le fuese siguiendo
en su viaje. Soy de opinión que Darío hablaba de este modo con
sincero corazón, aunque el hábil Democedes, recelándose de que
fuese aquella una fina tentativa de su fidelidad, anduvo con
precaución, sin aceptar desde luego las ofertas de su amo, antes
cortésmente le replicó que su gusto sería que su majestad le
permitiera dejar alguna parte de sus alhajas para hallarlas después a
su vuelta, y que aceptaría con placer la barca que su majestad tenía la
bondad de ofrecerle para cargar en ella los regalos para los suyos
Tales, en suma, fueron las órdenes con que Darío le envió con sus
compañeros hacia el mar.
CXXXVI. Habiendo, pues, bajado a Fenicia y llegado a Sidón, uno
de los puertos de aquel país, equiparon sin pérdida de tiempo tres
galeras, y cargaron de todo género de bastimentos una nave, en que
embarcaron asimismo varios y preciosos regalos. Abastecidos de todo
siguieron el rumbo hacia la Grecia, que fueron costeando y sacando
los planos de sus costas, sin dejar nada que notar por escrito, y
practicada esta diligencia con la mayor parte de los lugares, y en
especial con los más nombrados, llegaron por fin a Tarento en las
playas de Italia. Aristofílides, rey de los tarentinos, a quien Democedes
logró fácilmente sobornar, le complació en sus dos solicitudes, de
quitar los timones a las naves de los medos, y de arrestar por espías a
los persas, echando voz de que lo eran sin duda. Mientras se irrogaba
este daño a la tripulación, Democedes llegó a Crotona, y una vez
refugiado ya en su patria, suelta Aristofílides a sus prisioneros
restituyendo los timones a sus naves.
CXXXVII. Hechos a la vela otra vez los persas, parten en
seguimiento de Democedes, y como llegados a Crotona le hallasen
paseando por la plaza, le echaron mano al momento. Algunos de los
vecinos de Crotona a quienes el nombre y poder de los persas tenía
amedrentados, no mostraban dificultad en entregarles el fugitivo; pero