Laura Terry Fosters Curiosity and Confidence in Beginning Design Students

Tara Ferkel

Laura Terry is associate professor of architecture in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, where she's taught since 1998.

Editor's Note: As the U of A strives to become an employer of choice, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design is highlighting the faculty and staff who help the school excel.

Laura Terry, associate professor of architecture, joined the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design in 1998. Since then, she has taught primarily in the beginning design studios. She endeavors to foster curiosity in her students through iterative drawing and making practices.

The students are a large part of what has kept Terry at the Fay Jones School for nearly three decades. Their eagerness to learn challenges her to do the same.

In the 26 years Terry has spent at the university, she has witnessed how students' perspectives entering the program have shifted over the years. Due in part to the pervasiveness of the internet and social media, Terry said, first-year students are more exposed to architecture and design than they were when she started teaching.

"That has drawbacks because there's something nice about students coming in curious," Terry said. "I feel like with social media in particular there is almost a stereotype of what architecture and design are. I think that can be misleading for students. They think they know what they're coming into, but they don't fully understand what it means to be a designer. It takes a lot of practice."

That ability to practice is part of what Terry teaches in her beginning design courses. While some people may assume that early design is the easiest area to teach, Terry said that's not always the case. This is partially because the first two semesters are spent correcting assumptions and creating a solid foundation for students as they move through the program.

"Part of the responsibility of beginning design is to foster these students' curiosity, confidence and skills," Terry said. "It can't only be about the skills; it has to be about the bigger picture. I strive to instill that competence in students. While they're moving through the program, they need to believe they can do this if they're willing to put in the work."

Design involves long hours and a process of iteration, but it also includes the work of self-reflection and self-critique. Terry said students need to open themselves up to that work to succeed in architecture and design.

Terry said she has seen the importance of that vulnerability in her teaching at the Fay Jones School, as well as in her work outside of the school. Terry maintains an active studio art practice, in which she explores the landscape as a subject through drawing, painting and printmaking. In her free time, Terry practices vulnerability through nature writing. She said that the lessons of design apply to the craft of writing as well.

"It's the attention to detail that makes something transcend from being ordinary architecture or something from being an ordinary piece of writing," Terry said. "There's a way in which an author writes particular words or writes things in a particular way that's analogous to how an architect would design a building."

Although Terry has been writing academically for a long time, she said moving toward nature writing has been uncharted territory. It scares her at times, but she reminds herself — as she reminds her students — that it is valuable to do things that scare you.

Read the full Q&A with Laura Terry.