Scott Gerald Shall is the principal of sgsa+d and the director of the International Design Clinic (IDC). Professor Shall’s academic and professional work are based upon an ongoing study into issues ranging from sustainability and indigenous construction methodologies to contemporary cognitive patterns and learning processes. Through his work, Professor Shall has developed a unique guerrilla-style design process, which he teaches to his students through a series of design-abroad projects offered every spring and summer semester.

As an aid this effort, Professor Shall has founded the International Design Clinic – a registered not-for-profit dedicated to giving students of design the chance to use their skills as designers to aid communities in need around the world. In the summer of 2006, this work was centered in Oradea, Romania, where participating students spent four weeks designing and constructing a playground for abandoned children. In 2008, Professor Shall will take a team of students to India, where they will design and build portable schoolhouses for children living in the slums around Bombay.

To help students prepare for this experience, Professor Shall has created Guerrilla Architecture and Humanitarian Design, a course of study that uses risk-centered acts of experimentation to teach students the skills they need to succeed amidst the often-harsh conditions imposed by the humanitarian-based design experience. In 2006, this effort centered upon designing and building a playhouse to benefit a local non-profit that aids grieving children. In 2007, Professor Shall challenged his students to design an urban shelter for the homeless that could be simply built using only materials found within a dumpster.

Not surprisingly, the fruits of this work have had a profound impact upon Professor Shall’s growing architectural practice, sgsa+d, producing a series of investigations that explore the unique potentials of the commonplace to create a provoking and thoughtful response.