VIRTUAL New Schools of Thought

Abstract

The pedagogical challenge of teaching architectural design is encumbered, on one hand, by the pragmatic approach to which many traditional architectural design studios subscribe, and on the other hand, by capriciousness of creativity to which students license themselves as their means of self-expression. The task of architectural design is usually narrowly cast as a problem of arrangement and accommodation of a program of functions within a site. When precedence is given to program accommodation, form is compromised, and vice versa, when precedence is given to form arrangement, function is compromised. Cast as such, the design process becomes akin to “shoehorning” and the definition of architecture is reduced to a pragmatic issue of building. To properly meet the challenge of teaching architectural design, pedagogy needs to recast the design task primarily as a task of giving and givenness. Good architecture should trigger the imagination and thought to ways of thinking about the place and nature of things in the world thereby unfolding the space of desire for moral virtue, truth, and beauty. Good architecture gives things an image albeit in a non-representational way. Heidegger’s example of the bridge that brings into presence the banks of the river, rather than merely connecting them, is a familiar example of good architecture that discloses the nature of things, making them visible. This paper explores image-giving and design givenness to avail pedagogy of architectural design studios from missing the mark when seeking the portrayal of the architecturality of architecture.