School vs. Practice – Part One
In this article I will begin discussing architectural education and how it teaches students before beginning their role as a qualified architect.
This article was inspired by P.E.A.R. (Paper for Emerging Architectural Research) Issue One. My article will by no means follow a logical path or try to make any conclusions. Part One of this article will begin a discussion about teaching and architectural practice. There may be a Part Two… or there may not…
Matthew Butcher (writing for P.E.A.R.) questions whether architectural teaching should question normal or established orders?
Personally I believe this is the strongest and most important part of an architecture school: to encourage a student to think up a new or creative idea they must not “think inside the box”.
David Greene is a good example – by cheekily undermining and questioning the parametric work conducted at the Architectural Association (AA) he is opening a student’s mind, encouraging them to believe “there is another way”. I would say that the job of an architecture student is to question and challenge current trends such as parametricism.
A teacher of architecture has a responsibility to ask “what if…” The dense language that goes with parametricism is so absurd – it is the students job to break away from this trend and decipher it.
Adam Khan talks some real sense in the interview: he says
“If education can come out with some sense of what is architectural beauty and what are it’s causes then that’s great. You can’t possibly hope to be up to speed with all the regulations when you come out of school”
To me this is obvious: a student should display an awareness of current regulations and codes but should not be expected to be 100% office ready. Becoming acquainted with the realities of building is what RIBA Part 2 and 3 are for…
The P.E.A.R. article that inspired me to write this blog employed an interesting and easy to follow format. Using an interview technique to promote and record a discussion is definately something that Boidus will be developing in the future.
