Tuition free architectural education to launch June 1, 2017 in the Los Angeles Arts District

The Free School of Architecture (FSA) is honored to announce that the The Container Yard (TCY) will host the school from June 1 - July 15, 2017.  

Located in Los Angeles Arts District between MOCA’s Temporary Contemporary and SCI-Arc, the The Container Yard will act as the inaugural home to the school’s 36 students, 16 teachers, 16 person Board of Advisors and 5 person group of volunteer staff.  With a campus of over 60,000 square feet and a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces TCY will extend FSA’s ambitions to promote diversity and free access to architectural knowledge while experimenting with teaching models and formats. 

"With a rapidly growing community of over 70 students, teachers, staff and Board members, the Free School of Architecture has expanded well beyond our initial projections of 16-20 students and Faculty and as a result has had to look for a larger and more suitable home," said Peter Zellner, the school's founder. "We are grateful to Ash Chan, owner and driving force behind the Container Yard for his generosity in supporting the FSA vision for tuition free architectural education."

“The Yard has always represented freedom of creativity and the pursuit of curiosity and knowledge,” says Ash Chan, Owner of the Container Yard. “The opportunity to contribute to the evolution of accessible academia is such an honor.”

"The Container Yard is a leading venue for art, community, and cultural events for Los Angeles especially in the Arts District. With the addition of educational programming," says FSA Founder Peter Zellner, "we hope the Free of School of Architecture can contribute to TCY's spirit of public engagement and collaboration. TCY’s substantial indoor and outdoor spaces will allow us to experiment with class, lecture and workshop setups, creating a model of education that is literally and conceptually open." 

“Design has always been a core focus for us, whether architectural, industrial, aesthetic. To finally have the opportunity of adding an architectural education component to the TCY mix is awesome,” says Ash Chan. “We've never really had a razor sharp picture of what we expected the Yard to become, but ultimately it’s evolved into an intersection between food, art, design and culture.  We've always wanted to add education into the mix.”

The school will launch on June 1, 2017 at The Container Yard with a “FREE,” an inaugural symposium on the state and future of architectural education.  “FREE” will explore new forms of education and pedagogy, disciplinary vs. vocational conversations, the socio-economics of education and post-digital and post-studio education. “FREE” will be documented in FSAONE, the school's online and print journal. 

About The Container Yard: 

Located in the heart of the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles, The Container Yard continues to emerge as one of the most exciting urban renewal projects in the second-largest city in America. Its generic name, much like the bare brick walls that once housed the Japanese confectionary manufacturer Mikawaya, invites precisely the questions it has been reluctant to answer. For the past year, The Container Yard has eschewed defining itself in any certain terms, instead maintaining an artistic openness that pulsates with the hope and passion of unfettered possibilities. 

Occupying a formidable footprint on the city map, The Container Yard has made its mark on the city’s cultural consciousness. With the support of the community, the brick walls were soon covered in murals: three empty buildings and an enormous cooler became temporary canvases for the city’s emerging and established street artists who continue to play an integral role in the transformation of this post-industrial compound into a creative hub and artistic home. As The Container Yard has hosted a number of high-profile parties and events, both words and images are rapidly spreading about this exciting new space.

Moving forward, The Container Yard is committed to growing a locally sustainable ecosystem for the community with a global influence—what it likes to call sustainability through responsible commerce—by bringing in small, even experimental businesses for quality food and drink, innovative art and design, and ultimately inspiration and creativity.

The Container Yard is located at 800 E. 4th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013.

For more information visit: www.thecontaineryard.com. 

About the Free School of Architecture

The Free School of Architecture (FSA) is a tuition free, not-for-profit organization. Founded by educator and designer Peter Zellner in 2016, the Free School of Architecture will explore the edges of architectural education-- promoting free inquiry, free discourse and free debate.

For Further Press Inquires please contact: 

INFO@FREESCHOOLOFARCHITECTURE.ORG