Training

Launched in 2005, Rafael Viñoly Architectural Training and Research (RVATR) is a series of programs developed in response to the need for the practice of architecture to return more of what is learned through designing and constructing buildings to the field itself. Each program creates a space through which architectural knowledge can be developed free of the constraints of particular projects, sites, budgets, or programs—yet informed at every step by the realities of practice.

The training program was established to supplement formal architecture education of advanced students and practicing architects who find a significant gap between their formative instruction and the challenges they face as professionals, presenting architectural expertise not as an intuitive ability that comes only with experience, but as a body of knowledge that can be taught.

We promote the training of all staff in social and environmental design theory and practice, and encourage staff to incorporate informed sustainability perspectives within their work e.g. interdisciplinary cross-industry research into issues of sustainable design. Rafael Viñoly Architects offers employees sustainability workshops during lunch hour. At these “Lunch and Learn” workshops, we invite specialists to the office to educate our employees on the most state-of-the-art green technology. Not only do these workshops provide our employees with an educational outlet, they also allow them to acquire both AIA and GB CI credits for their continued AIA and LEED accreditations. In conjunction with maintenance of accreditations, Rafael Viñoly Architects encourages new employees to become LEED certified by providing them with both study materials and payment of the initial fee.

Recently, we began offering technical architectural design training Lunch and Learns. These AIA-accredited sessions give participants a basic working knowledge of how to access and use standardized office resources to optimize workflow and allow for efficiency in completing tasks that benefit from digital technology. For example, a Lunch and Learn demonstration of the Rhinoceros plug-in VisualARQ addressed a timelier way to produce 2-D documentation from Rhino models.

The workshops also explore the automation and augmentation of design through integration of 2-D and 3-D modeling software and parametric design tools into design and production processes. Training is provided in design software like Grasshopper and its various plug-ins, Ladybug and TT Toolbox. Participants learn to produce Sunlight Hours analysis, shadow studies, and Radiation Analysis as well as to integrate Microsoft Excel with Rhinoceros to track changes, visualize, and record project program areas.