The Practical Radical

College of Architecture and Cooking

What stands for great education at the University of Colorado? Read on.

One of the most popular courses at the Environment and Design building in Boulder is given by Shawn Edmonds. Why you ask? Well, he is a great teacher, does fun and challenging projects, and … he cooks.

Shawn is a trained gourmet chef and has been able to integrate his skills as a chef with design and architecture. At the last class of his course he cooks his class up a three course gourmet meal. And then he relates it to design.

For example, the final project for the students was to design an urban farm. So, he asked all the students to suggest products that could come from the farm for him to make. So – the ice cream was linked to the cow, the berries as a crop – and so on. He as well gave a mini-lecture.

This is an outline of ingredients and how they relate to
design. Each of the maincourse dishes related to a
principal in design that the students studied.

The appetizer – goat cheese, asparagus, golden beet
and drizzled with balsamic vinegar …

Dessert!!

It is quite amazing to meet someone who is so skilled in not one but two professions, and brings those passions to the classroom.

Them’s great eats and great education!