The Yard: A School for Making (yrd-schlmkng) is an educational and community project in East Knoxville developed in collaboration with the Shora Foundation and Sanders Pace Architecture. Situated near Austin-East Magnet High School, the project explores how architecture can create an accessible path between secondary education and the skilled trades through after-school learning, mentorship, and hands-on experience.

The project is organized around a collection of workshops and learning spaces surrounding a central working yard. Rather than treating exterior space as circulation between buildings, The Yard becomes the primary shared space of the campus: a place where students can build, repair, assemble, experiment, and learn alongside instructors, tradespeople, and one another. Workshops open directly onto this space, allowing work to expand outdoors while making the process of learning visible across the site.

Drawing from familiar regional building types and straightforward construction methods, the project treats the campus itself as an extension of its curriculum. Architecture becomes something students not only occupy, but can understand through how it is assembled, used, maintained, and changed over time.