Recorded live at the California Masonry Council's Design and Expo Day, host Adam Hutchinson sits down with Christian Benoit, first-place winner in the concrete block category — and a student who had never worked with masonry before this project.

Christian walks through how he turned a studio assignment on compressed stabilized earth block and rammed earth into an award-winning CMU design, why masonry might be sequestering more carbon than anyone realized, and why he thinks architecture schools are missing the boat on teaching masonry the way they teach mass timber.

Along the way, they discuss the real cost comparison between wood-frame and CMU walls, how California's climate zones change the insulation game, and why 150 students showing up to one event might be the blueprint for getting the next generation into the trade.

In this episode:

• How Christian adapted an earth-block studio project into a first-place concrete masonry design
• The surprising research on how much CO2 a CMU can permanently sequester over its lifetime
• Why a CMU wall can cost about the same as a wood-frame wall — once you count the trades
• How California's climate zones affect (or eliminate) the need for insulated block
• What it's like entering the masonry industry with zero prior masonry background
• Why Christian thinks masonry deserves its own place in architecture curricula
• The power of getting students physically in the room — CMC bused 150 students to this event
• What mentorship actually looked like on his path to an architecture degree
• Why showing up to a competition is worth it even if you don't win

Learn more about the Northwest Masonry Institute: https://masonryinstitute.com/in-the-mix