(Image by Dustin Eli Brunson)

The built environment defines us by giving character to place; it is transformative, nothing short of it.

As developers, architects, engineers, and construction managers we each play a singular role to build these environments.

We each must take a leap that we can work together as an integrated team, with the best intentions to build places to live, work, play, learn, and heal – today nothing less is required.

The building design and construction industries currently operate on fragmentation, mostly confrontation, contract disputes, and lack of collaboration.

Where does this behavior come from?

There is failure in our educational system to recognize this condition and transform the current academic context to better prepare emerging industry professionals that can act effectively across all disciplines; additionally there is failure to fully integrate, collaborate and forge better relationships between academia and the profession.

The Integrated School of Building (InSB) will teach the next generation of trans-disciplinary professionals. We will transform the academic environment and lead the way to a new more effective model.

We will stop asking the students to take a leap into the workplace, and their futures, unprepared. Instead we will enable them, providing the tools they need to perform, progress, and create success.

- Arturo Vasquez, AIA   Vice-President + Co-Founder

InSB has coined a phrase :

“Integration is the new Education”

Integration, at many levels, is what will take the current obsolete Higher Education model into the next century’s learning. It will cultivate the minds, and drive the innovations, of the new, more demanding and more proactive, faster-paced students across every field.

The current model remains mostly distanced from professions -with exceptions like medicine-, and this “space” of disconnect is always a missed opportunity for propelling that particular industry forward.

Unfortunately, what seems to be a fact is that the current model is in place for academics to cultivate more academics. Not many are looking beyond the walls of the institution.

We, at InSB, are industry specific. We live in AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) but if we, and others, begin to truly integrate education with fulfilling practical experiences, and students with professionals and professional firms, and all of the above within a context (with the cities and communities) we may just begin to see a drastic transformation, and we will see innovation in overdrive.

We each want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, and it is human nature to feel the need to make a difference. It is the only thing that is truly fulfilling.

We will see significant improvements across every industry when new models of Higher Ed are in place, and not to be self-servant, but instead to provide its students with these opportunities.

We need to create a space, especially at the graduate level, where students are truly integrated with their passions and aspirations.

Will you join us?… For a new (better) Higher Ed!

All Higher Education institutions today put significant emphasis on the writing skills of new students. College essay after college essay, these students demonstrate varying levels of abilities.

Somewhere along the way these skills seem to slowly disappear, especially in their more applicable and valuable form.

Statistics show that employers today are opting out of hiring certain graduates, including those from Business Administration programs, and instead hiring individuals that graduate from the Humanities. This is due to these students’ better communication and technical skills.

At InSB, we will worry a little less about the student entering, and worry significantly more about the student graduating. Neither student being more or less important, but both needing skills to be refined, directed for industry, and developed.

We will make sure graduates of our school leave prepared to write well, technically, clearly, and concisely. These skills are imperative in the AEC industry, especially in leadership roles.

An exit writing assessment will be integrated into the “Technical” component of an InSB Education.

The Construction industry, which constitutes all things including design, engineering, fabrication, and erection, is among one of the strongest economic indicators in the United States, and in most other countries.

Statistic to that effect can be found published and available throughout, including the US Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) website.

This translates into AEC controlling and affecting a large portion of the GDP.

Despite the fact, and the astronomical sums of money the industry moves, the construction industry is the one that invests the least in Research and Development. For an industry that seems to solely be interested in profit, this fact is nothing less than short-sighted given R+D leads to innovation, which leads to market expansion and creation, thus profitability.

Even if we considered re-investing sums as small as 3-5% in true R+D, we would be making significant strides.

We, at InSB, look forward to enabling a new generation of people that may have something to give back. People that will truly innovate, and have a lasting impact. Areas including Building Materials Development, Systems Development, and other rarely-seen but emerging areas like Robotics in Construction.

The new ROI for AEC is not “Return on Investment”, is “Return on Innovation”.  (Thanks, Arturo!)

Join us in the journey, and in the fostering the next (best) AEC generation.

As we continue with the development of our inaugural programs at the school, we have solidified a core structure that all graduate degrees will follow.

Important subject matters for study as are the foundation, better understanding, and development of individual and team leadership skills. The participation, collaborative work, and project delivery in practicum studios. The development of new, and expansion of existing, technical skills. And last but not least, the specialized programs that will give you the edge in whatever track you choose to follow.

You come to InSB and you will leave 100% Integrated.

OpnLi v1.0 – Beta is the new AEC+ Open Library, powered by InSB, made accessible to professionals and students in the industry worldwide.

OpnLi is a database of user generated content. Topics may include design, architecture, interior architecture, engineering, construction, construction safety, management, building and site development, urban and regional planning, base specifications, manufacturers details and specifications, design details, drawings, educational content, and others.

Continue Reading . . .

What would it take to create a new, more sustainable, Higher Education? What makes existing institutions static, hard to truly be regenerative, and perpetuate their own progressive education model development?

We ask ourselves those questions often.

At InSB we are committed to develop a dynamic model, one that will improve, and change, as times and the industry needs change; a model that will lead the way to sustainability and innovation.

This can only be done by ensuring we are ever-evolving (avoiding political and personal interests to exist – ie tenureship), and by constantly being in touch with the real world. Connecting and collaborating with the professions.

Is the existing Higher Education model another economic bubble, ready to burst? 

Student debt, in the US for the first time in economic history, exceeds financial and credit card debt. That is staggering.

The student is least to blame as, if looked holistically, Higher Education institutions have operated mostly with their own interests as priority, like any other business. Except they are not every other business, and the interests of the student body, as well as that of the industry they are entering, should supersede.

Does the Higher Ed Model need disrupting?

Many recent articles have been published speaking of “disrupting” the existing model, and creating institutions that will be innovative and student-centered, putting their interests first before the institution’s.

Join us, in the journey, of being “disruptive”.

We will proceed the set the foundation for a new specialized, connected, sustainable education.

Join us as we foster the next (best) AEC generation.

What is the Integrated School of Building?

A University. A Technology Park. A Research+Development Laboratory. A Co-Working Environment. An Incubator. An Innovator. A Space. A Place.

The first of its kind, InSB will open as a Progressive Student-Centered Organization.

Fostering the next (best) AEC generation.

What is an InSB student?

A Capable Professional. A Team Member. A Team Builder. A Team Leader.

An InSB student will know what they don’t know, and will be able to search and find it.

An InSB student will know what they can ‘bring to the table’, and will learn to accept, welcome, and manage what others can.

What is an InSB education?

A Specialized Education, yet a Holistic Perspective.

An Industry Focus, yet a Broad Preparation.

A clear and guided direction to a successful future for you, in your chosen AEC direction.

We thought we would share the 1st InSB presentation of 2012.

The place was HOK Chicago, one of the largest and most successful A/E firms in the U.S. The style was Pecha Kucha. The topic was simply an introduction of the School to the Chicago BIM/IPD Group.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We will post a video of the presentation once it becomes available. Stay tuned.

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