Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Abstract

Most curriculum on Architectural education allows for only a brief survey of the History of Architecture, and as a result there is very little room for a critical reevaluation of that history. This presentation and paper will discuss how the canon of Architectural History has been established through a common narrative of the heroic and how a deeper, more contextualized, and critical stance towards that history more fully supports a richer contemporary perspective on Architecture. What if Architectural History was taught as if there was no History of Architecture? No predetermined rote outcome commonly taught as the “canon”? What is the study of Architectural History was instead an exercise in deductive reasoning? Perhaps our students would be better served to be more like detectives of seeking answers of what spawned the extant works of architecture present today? The Architectural equivalent of CSI; an ASI: “Architectural Scene Investigation”. If students develop detective-like skills of analysis, they become more engaged in the investigative research necessary for a successful unearthed narrative, the origin story of the building and its architect. Working backwards from onsite works of Architecture, students are more apt to learn the salient facts of how and why a particular work of architecture came to be in existence. This presentation and paper will outline a methodology for education that seeks to create levels of curiosity and inquiry of the architectural world as it exists, to better understand the processes and ideas at play in its creation through an investigation of its specific architectural history.