Architecture tries to unite ideologically contradictory forces in the union of art and business, so that at each step the primary professional activity, design, hangs in the balance

School projects take design to be a master value, requiring students to integrate it with some technical and social considerations. The projects are not burdened by business factors, economic issues or power struggles

Integration of design was required with extensive technical and social consideration, including a firm budget, structural requirements for approvals and land use regulations

The influence brought to bear on any project is distributed among numerous participants, each having a voice in the matter

The individual student works primarily alone, with guidance from the studio instructor in an expert-novice relation. Proposals are rarely considered from any point of view besides that of the architect (no outsider evaluation)

Students worked as a collective, and alongside an engaged community stakeholder

The responsibilities, procedures, authority, allegiances and expertise in any design process are ambiguous

Problems are designed to have a certain clarity and focus. Complexity is constrained and ambiguity is avoided

Responsibilities and procedures started off uncertain, but clarity emerged through a guided process of self-determination

Although a single specific outcome is expected, participants never know what that outcome will be, since the possibilities are limitless

Solutions are formal and technical responses based primarily on visual appearances [as opposed to functionality or economics]. In school students make break the rules, challenge the program and experiment

The expectation for outcome was established with an openness to allow program challenges and experimentation

Since the information needed to make decisions is never complete and every issue is potentially negotiable, the design process could go on endlessly

Limits to the design process are set by convention, instructor and academic calendar. There is never enough time to complete a project, but the deadlines are enforced, and students are often encouraged to start over

The design timeframe was ultimately limited by the academic calendar, but the process of design moved through flexible cycles of discovery

Actors in the planning process are highly motivated, since the stakes are significant and the consequences serious

School intentionally provides a risk-free context, so that no one but the students is affected by the outcome. Qualities such as negotiation, altruism, compromise and generosity are irrelevant

While students engaged not only the community partner, but members of the user community for the project, the scale of the design mitigated the risk to larger groups