Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Abstract

Situated in a rapidly transforming world, how we might educate future architects, needs constant re-invention. The ever-expanding breath of the architecture school curriculum in the UK demands fresh approaches, that can be both immersive and subversive, to avoid a loss of definition of the territory of the discipline and with it the joy experienced in its learning. ‘It doesn’t necessarily have to be either or’- bell hooks ‘practice embodies the action’ Meanwhile, the need for an active learning model that engages with the local /hyper local to embed a sense of agency over built environment change in young citizens and fledging designers and architects alike, whilst transforming the learning experience, has never been greater. This is aligned with the desire for a more equitable, open and accessible profession, supporting a more pluralistic and global debate. Collaborative and participatory processes of design can act as vehicles for conjuring ‘the social imagination’ as Ivan Illich called it, whilst demystifying the incongruous realities of architectural practice, promoting an engaged pedagogy- a taught openness- whilst mirroring practice for the proto professional. Taking the example of the story of the gordian knot, where the application of a coherent and unexpected direct action suddenly unlocks a gnarly problem, some of the live projects presented from KSA’s Architecture Dept and from C20th radical pedagogic models, will demonstrate how this attitude might have currency today.