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Taliesin West Art & Architecture Camps: Summer Fun Recap

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation | Aug 28, 2018

From exploring new planets to designing dream spaces to capturing images of Taliesin West, K-12 campers in our 2018 Summer Art & Architecture Camps reached new heights.


Architectural Discovery

Campers tested out a range of different engineering and architecture designs throughout Architectural Discovery Camp. A few of these projects/lessons included:

  • Building their own functioning water tower in the desert
  • Creating a Wright-inspired stained glass project
  • Building bridges and testing how much weight they could bear
  • Creating a model for a desert shelter

Photographing Wright

Arizona photographer Andrew Pielage led students in capturing the beauty around them, through their own lenses. Campers learned the basics of photography, including aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, while facing the challenges that the harsh desert light and shadows presented. The campers even ventured out into the desert behind Taliesin West to explore some of the student shelters!

Photo by Andrew Pielage.

Photo by Andrew Pielage.


Design Your Dream Space

Campers came to Taliesin West and learn how to build their dream home from the ground up. They created a fully detailed three-dimensional model of their own compact dream space.

  • First, they developed a floor plan.
  • Then, they learned how to scale furniture, so it fits in their dream space. They used maps and tested different measurements.
  • Finally, they built a scale model of the floor plan using foam core, cardboard, and other materials to make their dream space or home a reality.

Wright for the Future

Campers worked toward building a city for the future by first exploring different city layouts, from Wright’s Broadacre city to Phoenix’s city grid. Campers then learned about how cities around the world work—whether through technology, agriculture, and energy—to promote better transportation and higher living quality. As they continued through the week they were taught how to draw city plans, scale buildings down, and orientate buildings onto a block plan. Nearing the end of the camp they built up on their own city site plans and started to develop a model city of the future.


Designing for Mars

Designing for Mars was a new camp this year at Taliesin West, where campers began to learn about the difference between Mars and Earth. After learning a bit about Mars they:

  • Developed a menu for food on Mars
  • Designed a space suit that would keep them safe in a radioactive, hot environment
  • Watched a presentation by a NASA educator and had a Q&A with the educator
  • Chose a site on which to build a colony on Mars and built a model for the colony