FSA Newsletter No. 1 / December 2016

Welcome to the Free School of Architecture's inaugural Newsletter.   

As of this month FSA has over 400 subscribers! Sign up at www.freeschoolofarchitecture.org.

Thank for joining us in support of a tuition and salary free, architectural education.

Each month we will issue an update with details about our programs, the application process, new faculty and upcoming events the Los Angeles area.

In this month's Newsletter we have some facts about the school to share with you, some progress about how we plan to start the application process in January of 2017 and finally we're excited to post some recent press we've collected in a few short months.

FSA Facts 
About the School
Founded in 2016, the Free School of Architecture (FSA) is a tuition and salary free, not-for-profit organization.  FSA will launch in the Summer of 2017 with a class of 12 Post-Graduate students and a Faculty of 10 Teachers. FSA will be based in and around Los Angeles, California. The school will seek 501c3 status and a fiscal sponsor before classes start next year.  By 2019, FSA is hoping to accept up to 36 students annually. Our hope is that FSA will cap out at 48 students attending extended courses and sitting in a new home by 2020. 
 
Curriculum 
In year one the Free School of Architecture will offer 12 Courses over the Span of 6 Weeks.  FSA will operate as a night school. FSA’s classes will be organized into 5 topical course bundles or packets focused on:

• Architectural History and Theory;
• Design and Aesthetic Theory;
• Practical and Vocational Topics;
• Philosophy;
• General Studies. 

Educational Goals
FSA students will not be graded nor will they ever produce design or written “products.” They may have to make public presentations or offer a response to their peers and teachers, perhaps in the form of a defense of an idea or even a practice statement related to their academic or professional ambitions.  The goal of these public presentations will be to allow students to develop and outline key concepts, both reflective and projective, related to their individual practices. 
 
Location 
FSA may have a home by next summer or it may remain itinerant and occupy several spaces around Los Angeles for the first academic year.

Public Events 
Through a series of public symposia, to be staged in the spring of 2017, the Free School of Architecture will also explore new forms of education and pedagogy, disciplinary vs. vocational conversations, the socio-economics of education: specifically diversity, social and community/political outreach and post-digital and/or post-studio education.
These symposia will be documented and the results of the events will appear in FSAONE, the school's online and print journal.
 
Publications 
FSA’s inaugural efforts will be published by the Free Architecture Press (FAP).  
FAP will distribute course materials, lectures and students’ ideas or efforts online for free as well as in limited run print editions which will be for sale. 
FSAONE, the school's online and print journal, will be issued in the fall of 2017. It will be followed by FSATWO in 2018.