The Architectural Materials and Systems course at the Bowling Green State University in Ohio pursues the integration of a design/build exercise, which focuses on the creative opportunities that come with the application of concrete masonry units. The exercise with CMU’s causes interesting interplay interaction, interpretation, and integration, providing students the opportunity to break away from compartmentalization and offering a unique forum for testing pedagogies about making. Students are encouraged and expected to exploit the endless possibilities of expression through spontaneous, coherent and innovative incorporation of CMU’s. Collaboration among students gives them a valuable occasion to realize a design in built form as mock-ups that cannot be duplicated in any other format. The project shown here explains how concrete masonry units support and contribute to an architectural concept.