Redefining + Redesigning Architectural Education: Beyond Tinkering in an Ethos of Emergency (original) (raw)

The effective education of architects is a crucial responsibility in our troubled times, especially considering the rapid depletion of resources, the dramatic decay of the environment and the everyday attack on humanity evident in countries, cities and communities across the globe. Design is an undeniably powerful tool for realizing positive change. In a world where the urban now eclipses the rural, it is essential for architects to understand complex systems, to acknowledge diversity of people, politics, culture + conditions, to steward precious assets, and to seek above all else a higher quality of life for humankind as we negotiate and navigate a complicated, confusing and often very difficult existence. Despite a rapidly & dramatically changing milieu over the last century, the education of architects has remained relatively unchangedmany of the principles and practices deployed in schools of architecture beckon back to methods and manners forged as cities began to develop due to pressures and possibilities of industrialization. An arguable obsession with material culture, with building as object and with technology as tool has de facto limited attention to other essential dimensions of design. All too often neglected are the social, cultural, spiritual and human facets of being & dwelling. In an era of escalating conflict, of growing tension, of unclear values and of obscured vision, it seems timely and appropriate to re-imagine how we educate architects. We need to move beyond the technicality of bricks & mortar and glass & steel. We need to transcend bottom-line-inspired sustainability checklists. We need to surpass a focus on the quantitative, the easily measured and the lowest common denominator. The present paper argues for a more balanced curriculum, a more people-oriented pedagogy and new ways of considering architectural education that shift emphasis from the physical to the phenomenological. It urgently calls for an architectural education that balances poetics + pragmatics while invoking an overarching passionate focus on people, place & quality before machine, space & quantity.