Program Location: Summit School of Ahwatukee, Phoenix, AZ
Number of Participants: 300+
Age of Participants: Preschool to Eighth Grade
Team Members: Kathleen Kupper, Selene Kupper, Eugene Kupper

The Vitruvius Program (VP) offers studio education in Architecture, art, and design. It was founded in 1988 and has been implemented in Architecture Schools, Elementary Schools, and Museums. Special projects, after school and summer programs are still offered: it is presently integrated with regular curriculum for all students Preschool - Eighth grade at Summit School. The VP has been published and exhibited internationally and awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Arizona Commission on the Arts.

• Detailed objectives for teaching methods and content for each grade level and for each architecture project are structured into a ten-year curriculum. Skills taught for each age-appropriate group include: Discussion, Presentation and Critique, Freehand and Constructed Drawing, Modeling in a variety of media, Painting, Printmaking, Photography, and Installation/Exhibition.

• Children learn Architecture through intense design projects and examples of historical and contemporary art and architecture. A balance of cognitive and manipulative skills is taught in each project, with individual and group critiques and exhibitions for public discussion. All students demonstrate understanding of architectural design principles and achieve a high level of completion, with excellent material and craft techniques.

• Social, Environmental and Global Understanding is emphasized as the spiritual and practical goal for our students. Projects are selected to stimulate understanding of site, physical setting and cultural milieu, with specific programs that address the social and technical issues of the community. International design team partnerships are established at a local and global level.

• Creative thinking is promoted and developed, merging with critical inquiry to identify environmental and urban problems and propose innovative solutions.

• Young students enjoy creating models and drawings of Worlds they can explore. The model is a tool and a toy that stimulates imagination and focuses concrete thinking. Drawing and painting offer freedom of expression yet disciplined work for which students take pride. The students take pleasure in achieving creative skills that can make positive changes in their world.

• Parent, administrative, and colleague evaluations consistently rank the program in the 98th percentile for excellence in creative learning. They are enthusiastic supporters of the Vitruvius Program, its teaching methods and social objectives, and are impressed by the architectural content of the work. This support is evident in articles, grants, museum shows, exhibition reviews, awards, and our daily life experiences.

• The Summit School thematic based curriculum addresses individualized learning approaches, diverse students, and interdisciplinary subjects. The VP integrates with Summit's core curricula and closely collaborates with teachers and specialists.

• The Vitruvius model as implemented for the last 10 years at Summit School provides an excellent working example that may be emulated and replicated. Graduate students in architecture who have worked with us have brought our approach to other settings with success.

Outcomes and Evaluation of the Project
The Vitruvius Program has continued to grow and improve for over 20 years, and has always been enthusiastically received and supported.

Yearly surveys by Summit parents, administration, and colleagues consistently rank the program in the 98th percentile for excellence in creative learning.

The VP was accredited in 2010 by NCA/CASI, as a component of Summit School. Weekly reports to parents and staff are posted on the Summit website for response. Evaluations are consistently very high.

The VP has been awarded NEA and Arizona Arts Commission grants.

Phoenix Magazine, August 2009, selected/published the VP as one of five outstanding education projects in the state. The Arizona Republic has published in-depth reviews of VP at Summit.

The 2005 and 2010 Exhibitions at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art have been critically acclaimed in reviews. This has led to invitations to participate in other public events of the Museum.

• Additional Information
• Originating in Graduate Architecture Schools at UCLA and founded in 1988 at SCI-Arc, the Vitruvius Program benefits from its background in world-class Architectural Education.

  Eugene Kupper was a founding member of the UCLA faculty and wrote its M.Arch curriculum. He has a BArch from UC Berkeley, a MArch from Yale, and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

  Kathleen Kupper has taught Architecture, Design, and Art in elementary schools since 1975. She has a BFA from California Institute of the Arts and a MArch from UCLA.

  Selene Kupper has been involved in Vitruvius Studios since birth, and is now a full-time Vitruvius teacher. She is enrolled at Arizona State University in Design.

  The Vitruvius curriculum may claim that a student enters Preschool and graduates Eighth Grade with TEN YEARS OF EDUCATION IN ARCHITECTURE prior to entering High School.

  Studio Projects are chosen for their intrinsic interest and appropriateness. The guidelines for each Project stress the study of:

  1. Relevance of Project to Social and Environmental Concerns

  2. Role of the Architect in such a Project

  3. Elements of Architecture and Architectural Principles

  4. Representation / Presentation of the Project

  The Projects represent an invitation to creativity and play. This means that we can go outside the usual definitions and restrictions to find relationships to Art, Science, Myth, and Social and Natural Environments.

  Each project should be of the highest possible quality. We call the levels: "portfolio," "exhibition," and "museum."

•