The Urban Guild
By: J. David Chapman/October 21, 2021
Seaside in Florida, Carlton Landing at Eufaula Lake, Wheeler District in OKC, The Lark and The Ember in Edmond. These are new urbanist communities attempting to increase the quality of life of residents with the built environment. I agree with these developers that the way we build can certainly have an impact on health, happiness, and environmental sustainability.
My son, Ryan Chapman, woke up early Sunday morning declaring he was on his way to Carlton Landing at Eufaula Lake to attend a workshop conducted by The Urban Guild. Oh, how that makes a father proud to see the next generation interested in urbanist ideas for the future. Many in his generation believe what Leon Krier stated, “The industrialization of building has had the negative effect of transforming buildings which ought to be objects of long-term use into short-term consumer goods, aggravating the wastage of construction materials beyond what is ecologically tolerable.”
The Urban Guild is a group of accomplished design professionals who design places people love by focusing on respecting and understanding the wisdom of the principles of architecture and urbanism that have succeeded over time. They accomplished this by sharing principles, techniques, and tools for great design for the continued innovation and advancement of the trade. Membership in the Urban Guild is an honor and it reflects the member’s commitment to excellence in the design of the built environment. There are several paths to membership and varying levels of commitment including members, apprentices, students and stewards.
The Urban Guild was at Carlton Landing, which is home to Clay Chapman (no relation), who builds the “1,000-year” home. Clay’s company, Hope for Architecture, has begun a structural masonry revival rescuing the values and wisdom of the past for a lasting built environment. He has abandoned conventional building practices for an act of permanence, constructing an energy-efficient, multi-century legacy home. Clay accomplishes this with clay brick masonry buildings in a technic known as “structural masonry.” Structural masonry refers to the practice of using masonry, brick or stone, in such mass that it becomes self-supporting. It is one of the oldest building methodologies, and by far the most resilient.
I am thankful for people like Clay Chapman and organizations such as The Urban Guild that understand that the built environment has an important role in capturing our history and culture and therefore it is worthy of our investment and preservation.
J. David Chapman is a professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).