Experience of Design Education in Schools of Architecture

Abstract

This paper argues for a more responsive architectural pedagogy that enables future architects to create human environments and that emerges from and responds to societal, cultural, and environmental needs. Human environments are those that enhance, celebrate, and support human activities, those that reflect behavioral and cultural norms defined by society, those that ultimately integrate economy, ecology, and society into systems or are simply those everyday environments. A critical analysis of a number of thematic issues is provided to delineate the gaps between skill-based and knowledge-based pedagogies in the educational process of architecture. The paper provides a number of scenarios that help bridge these gaps while integrating knowledge contents necessary for creating human environments. This mandates a comprehensive understanding of two different but related types of pedagogies in architecture: skill-based and knowledge-based.

Keywords

• architectural education
• educational process
• architectural schools
• theoretical and practical basis
• design studio