Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Abstract

Architectural practice seams sometimes stranded, but not defeated. What direction transformation takes is not only shaped by authority and persistence but by those leading a growing recognition of entanglement, complementarity, indeterminacy and potentiality. Recognizing that architecture is generalist, collaborative, and unpredictable, and that architectural innovation happens when that messy totality is nimble enough to accommodate contingencies, the architect is a negotiator at the center of a diverse team of collaborators. Building on Rebecca Solnit’s statement that one of the strongest revolutions that count is the one that takes place in the imagination, the proposal is an analysis in the face of a changing demographic in the receivers of a graduate course on Leadership and Architecture over eight years. From how to lead a practice, the evolution is to practice leading. Graduate first professional degree students with diverse background present collaborative scripts and informative provocations. What can architects do? no more harm. Observations of moments when borders misplace their guards and the possible attitude of training the Architect as Facilitator emerge. What side are you on? as always, depends on whether you ask the victim or the perpetrator, whether you ask the student or the teacher. I look both ways at the same time, answered Janus, the god of beginnings, gates, transitions doorways, passages, and endings. “You put two things that have not been put together before, and the world is changed.” (Julian Barnes)