EAAE Annual Conference Proceedings

Both of Stuff and Not

Giovanni Corbellini — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

Architecture is a quite elusive discipline, both unleashed and restrained by a perennial calling into question of its own fundamentals. Being and becoming an architect means to cast a doubtful, unsatisfied, interrogative gaze on the world and especially on the world of architecture. Teaching such a (self-) critical discipline is, therefore, an intrinsically impossible task. Of course, syllabuses include specific competencies such as drawing, history, structures, law, economics... but when it comes to integrating them into the architectural project, any fixed framework becomes questionable, and it is precisely this questioning that makes design architectural, offering that necessary potential which can turn mere building into architecture.

Ways of Choosing

Sarah O'Dwyer, Julie Gwilliam — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

Architectural education must produce graduates which have demonstrated standards of knowledge, skill and competence for practice as an architect, who possess particular professional attributes and who are also aware of their civic responsibilities. As such, graduates are taught to question and direct design conditions from particular design paradigms and stances. In the context of two dichotomous design culture stances — Architectural Design Excellence (ADE) which prioritises aesthetic architectural ideals and space-making, and Sustainable Performance Excellence (SPE) which has technical prowess and the built environment response to social, environmental and economic sustainability as its focus — this paper studies the role of school design culture in Irish Schools of Architecture in providing the focus on what constitutes architectural design excellence, and what shapes the framework in which these ideas sit.

Provincial and Outdated?

Karl Otto Ellefsen — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

What happens to a school when education is an international commodity and teachers are recruited globally? Bringing in their own luggage and agendas and asking, “Why not do something else?” The school does not fall apart. Modern management keeps it running smoothly. In terms of educational institutions, a good reputation seems to sustain. Elaborated strategies define potential new roles for the school in the world. Does culture beat strategy, is there a ghost in the machine that cannot be removed? Or is the school transforming into something found anywhere in the world, and mostly mediocre? A few years ago, a known figure in the EAAE system stated that: “There is no such thing as a global curriculum in architecture”, believing that schools gave priority to and took care of their own identities. Was this a false statement? Discussing the relationship between school and society, is the concept of belonging still valid and possible to pursue? If so, what measures are relevant?

Knowledge Production at the Borderline Territory

Lovorka Prpić — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

Learning is a life-long process of growth and transformation through personal experience. Learning, like creation, takes place in relation. Life happens in the interval of matter. In the magnetic field of an active void— the space-time interval of change — a new form of life is created. Intention is to explore the incentive for knowledge production dynamics in the education of architects through a lens of relational phenomena. The key stimulus for production of knowledge is a transformative encounter with the dissimilar ‘Other’. The process of learning architecture is examined through the phenomenology of perception as the epistemologically most suitable apparatus. Experience of the inside-outside relation in spatial perception of architecture is compared with the one in psychoanalytical dynamics. Winnicott’s seminal concept of ‘transitional space’ is juxtaposed with a dynamic experience of transgressing porous architectural boundaries — both being analogs of the learning process.

Searching for the Essence of Architecture at Porto School

Francisca Mesquita, Teresa Calix, João Pedro Xavier — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

The Faculty of Architecture at the University of Porto (FAUP), founded in 1979, and benefiting from the legacy of the School of Fine Arts (ESBAP), is internationally recognized and a worldwide reference in architectural teaching. Fernando Távora (1923–2005), Álvaro Siza (b. 1933) and Eduardo Souto de Moura (b. 1952) might be considered the three pillars of the school, although their contribution cannot be considered without their predecessors, the group of people they worked with and the Portuguese particular context. These masters’ strong personalities — embodied in their pedagogical action — and the space where the didactics take place — actually a project by one of them — are omnipresent and might be considered the better “not so hidden” secret of the School. The three architects were linked in teaching practice, profession and life. They experienced a master/disciple relationship at a certain point, and later shared, as professors, a strong idea of the School.

Towards a Methodology for Rethinking Modernity

Aleksandra Milovanović, Anica Dragutinović, Jelena Ristić Trajković, Ana Nikezić — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

The subject of this paper is twofold (1) towards review and revision of extra-curricular learning model in the form of a student workshop as an extended environment and a reflective arena, and (2) towards generating workshop content aimed at examining modernity in contemporary conditions of urban transformation. The paper is structured in three parts. The first part introduces the concept of an architectural workshop with a discussion of general methodological perspectives that shape this approach that takes place through three continuous stages during which students develop the process of analytical thinking, architectural programming and architectural design. The second part of the paper contextually and conceptually position the content of the workshop aimed at examining modernity in contemporary conditions of urban transformation between imagined, realized, and lived space. The third section introduces the content of two student workshops as an illustrative example of the implementation of methodology with specified assignments and substance.

Between Daedalus and Ariadne

Ed Frith — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

This paper investigates the hidden body in architectural education, and the importance of place over space (Ingold, 2012), through three body, architecture, and movement research projects, where explicitly, at the centre of the architectural investigation, is the body. In the first research project, a mapping of the body in a social environment; in the second, an environmental and spatial audit of the places of drowning across the South West of the UK for the RNLI, reveals the mental and physical pressures that the body can be under; and thirdly, an installation project in the British Pavilion in Venice, which exhibits an experiential journey of mutability between architecture and the body. The position and context of the mythological Ariadne (Colomina, 2011) versus Daedalus (McEwen, 1994) as either architect or choreographer is graduated across the projects set with the ecological context of Guattari’s, ‘Three Ecologies’ (1989)

Students' Approach to Participating in Informal Education

Neslihan İmamoğlu — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

The way of learning and performing practice, the tools and methods that are being used for it and the spaces that these processes take place are shifting with the change of information and technology. Under these circumstances architectural education has faced difficulties in being up to date in particular about curriculum, program and physical requirements. While instant solutions give instant results, it is inevitable that rooted solutions will be encountered to keep up with this rapid change. For this reason, countless “informal education” activities are being implemented, such as competitions, workshops, assemblies, forums, publications, etc. This paper focuses on BASS (Betonart Architectural Summer School) as a case to understand the motives of participating in such activities from the perspective of architectural students. It tries to demonstrate that students are aware of the importance of informal educational activities, furthermore they are increasingly demanding.

The Handprint, the Shower of Gold, and Thingness of Architecture

Krunoslav Ivanišin — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

Architecture is an eminently artificial human enterprise but subject to natural laws and principles residing somewhere between the mineral world and vegetation. It is eminently archaic, as the dominant epistemologies, pragmatic conditions and techniques may change, but fundamental notions, ideas and principles remain where they have been ever since the construction of the first shelter. Architecture is also eminently thingly. As a thing, every work of architecture is in opposition to our broken world of events. For better or for worse, in actual practice this opposition settles in the act of construction, as a project becomes a building: material, structure, space.

The Hidden Spaces of Everyday Life

Claus Peder Pedersen, Naime Esra Akin — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

The paper explores the notion of the ‘everyday’ in architectural education through the examination of six educational and research projects from the academic institutions of the authors in respectively Istanbul, Turkey and Aarhus, Denmark. The paper unpacks how the projects engage with topics of the everyday in various ways. A comparative analysis orders the projects according to how specifically they address particular everyday situations and to what extent they aim to transform the spaces and social interactions of the sites they engage. The analysis is contextualised through social and architectural theories of the everyday by among others Henri Lefebvre. The conclusion argues for the importance of continuous re-engagement with the everyday for architectural education.

Problematic Flexibility as an Asset for a Thorough Reflection on Architectural Education

Dag Boutsen — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

This paper is exploring the benefits and assets of an educational experiment without clear ownership. More specifically, it is about a form of democracy of doing in almost all the phases of a continuous exercise in the WTC1-tower in Brussels. An unintended lack of control over the different event processes led to a curious form of critical thinking about the “context” for architectural ‘schooling’, which is generally understood as necessary. The very special experiment contains many more elements than anyone could have foreseen.

Updating the Spatial Figures of Learning

Barbara Coppetti — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

The educational institution represents the basis of civil society: any great empire or civilzation began to be considered when it developed a structured educational system capable to educate aware citizens participating in public life. Retracing the etymological origin of hte term school, the latter suggests a hidden component which should still be at the basis of the idea of contemporary school. The word comes from the Latin schola, which derives from the ancient Greek scholè that means to take care of free time. The scholè was the time in which one rested form the effort of daily life, to devote himself to study and reasoning. The proposal in this paper is that the first hidden layer of architectural education is to give back to the school its authentic meaning of scholè, place of the otium, where the love of knowledge lives. The Place on one side and the Educator on the other are the first components to update our universities: open campus, informal spaces, off-the-record paths + innovative teaching are the main tools to pursue a better quality of architectural education.

Effects of Restorative Environments on Creativity in Case of Architecture Education

Beste Sabir — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

Creativity is a mental process, and cognitive psychology has focused on this subject, especially in the last century. While neuroscience concentrates on creative processes; new data emerges. When we consider architectural production as a creative process, the "free association REST thinking mode" focuses on the principle of free circulating thought, allowing relaxation and free-thinking to lead to new connections (creative moments) in the brain. The paper aims to focus on how spaces affect the creative process in case of architectural education, production, and creation. If REST mode — as relaxation, meditation, and awareness — supports the process of creation, how do restorative (calming, meditative) spaces and environments affect this process as well? With this approach, students will be questioned with quantitative methods to collect data about the effects of faculty and meditative environments on the creative process.

Read Between the Walls

Rossina Shatarova — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

The spatial dimension of a school transforms an abstraction into a situated phenomenon. In doing so, the context intentionally or implicitly affects education. The potential impact the physical environment and the implied connotations it carries on one’s experience in and of it, is best argued by common sense. In the sense that architecture can be considered as a means to curate scenarios, anticipate and influence behaviour and even create a narrative, architecture is an agent in what composes the hidden school. In the case of educational spaces for architecture, the built environment is particularly influential as it is not only a representation of the idiosyncratic nature and program of an architecture school but also a reflection of its attitude towards the discipline and a statement about its aspirations and culture. Every aspect of an architecture school’s physical presence can be interpreted as a statement about its character and spirit, despite the fact that those analyses may be inconclusive hypotheticals. A school’s location and context can be related to both its self-awareness and its attitude towards the outside world.

Foreword

Oya Atalay Franck — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

The mission of the European Association for Architectural Education EAAE is to advance the quality of architectural education in Europe and thus of architecture in general. The EAAE is a forum for the generation and dissemination of knowledge and information on all aspects of architectural education and architectural research. The Annual Conferences of EAAE would not be possible without a member school stepping in, taking the responsibility of organizing the event for EAAE, working very closely with the president and the council. In 2019, we were very thankful for the commitment and generous support of the University of Zagreb, whose efforts brought together the representatives of over 130 architecture schools from all over Europe here in the capital of Croatia. We were also proud to be part of the celebrations of the Zagreb School of Architecture’s centennial establishment. With each of the EAAE annual gathering, as well as with our other formats such as the recently held first EAAE/ACSA Teachers Conference or the EAAE/ARCC Research Conference, we reach beyond the geographical boundaries of our individual institutional settings, addressing all educators, researchers and administrators who engage themselves for high quality architectural education.

Talking About the Hidden in Architectural Education

Mia Roth-Čerina, Roberto Cavallo — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

The European Association of Architectural Education’s annual conference of 2019 was held at the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb from August 28th to 31st. Titled ‘The Hidden School’, it aimed to open a discussion on the substance and quality of architectural education, an architecture school’s true character, the traits which – however explicitly or implicitly manifested – embody the school’s culture and identity. The conference explored the subliminal quality of architectural education less apparent just by reading the curricula or following evaluation procedures, yet which represent a substantial quality or the culture of a school, quite clearly legible to those engaging in it. The invitation to explore this topic proposed five aspects of a school as triggers, focusing on tacit meanings situated between the lines of the syllabus, the spirit generated by students contributing to it or the educators personifying it, informal learning modalities, spaces it inhabits: the Educator, the Content, the Process, the Place, the Student. The scientific committee placed a question to the participating schools: “If the hidden school exists in parallel or as a background process, a self-generated search for fundamental answers, and its interpretation, manifestation or legibility has a multitude of facets, how can these aspects be captured?” Is it possible to assess the ‘hidden’?

Extramural but not Extracurricular

Simon Beeson — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

This paper considers the introduction of a Personal Development Portfolio into our assessment for architectural education. When revising out undergraduate course structure we moved to a fully integrated model, where assessment was based on a portfolio or ‘body of work’ produced during a ten-week studio project. These projects introduce, develop and integrate understanding and ability of the key knowledge and skills of the curriculum; design, communication, realisation (technology) and contextual studies. Each year of study also includes one unit where professional knowledge is also assessed. Alongside these ‘learning outcomes’ we introduced a PDP: a separate report documenting and reflecting on everything that falls outside the predicted aims of the project.

Developing Autonomous and Responsible Learners

Dua Al Maani — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

The purpose of the design studio, which is the core of architectural education, is to educate the students to understand the nature of design, to think independently, to act in “designerly ways”, and to become “reflective practitioners”. The student must take on a new mode of learning, in which the main way to learn is by doing, and in which there is no one correct way to approach the design problem. The previous aspects associated with the studio — together with the open-ended, exploratory, and iterative nature of the design process — place the student at the center of the learning experience. Tutors in this context are facilitators of learning, rather than knowledge experts, and are expected to pay attention to the challenges that face students in adapting to this new learning environment and in assuming a new learner identity. Hence, this study employs longitudinal mixed approaches to uncover an emic perspective of the ways architecture students conceptualize learning in their first year and what distinguishes them from students in other disciplines.

Becoming Cosmopolitan Citizens Architects

Massimo Santanicchia — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

This paper presents findings from fourteen qualitative interviews conducted with students of architecture from eleven schools of the Nordic Baltic Academy of Architecture (NBAA). The interviews were analysed using the abbreviated Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) method. The findings reveal that students consider a meaningful architectural education one that helps them making ethical design choices. To do so respondents indicate that schools should help students find their inner compass, develop their professional skills, and ethical attitudes to think independently and make a difference in their society and beyond. Three narratives emerge which describe the multiple roles of an architect in our society: the dissident intellectual, the ethical professional, and the storyteller. On the basis of these findings and with the support of the work of Henry Giroux “Critical Theory and Rationality in Citizenship Education” and Martha Nussbaum “Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism”, a framework referred to as “Cosmopolitan Citizenship Architecture Education” is developed.

A Design-Build Experience

Ayse Zeynep Aydemir — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

As a part of the stated curriculum of MEF University Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, Design and Build! Studio (DBS) is a compulsory summer programme for students completing their first year in architecture and interior design. Within the framework of Design and Build! Studio, the school communicates its set of values through emphasizing learning by doing, horizontal learning and underlining the process. This paper discusses how a design-build studio can be a distinctive hidden quality of an architecture faculty through the case of Kilyos Boathouse project conducted in Summer 2018.

Rethinking the Crit

Patrick Flynn, Miriam Dunn, Mark Price, Maureen O'Connor — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

Assessment in architecture and creative arts schools has traditionally adopted a ‘one size fits all’ approach by using the ‘crit’, where students pin up their work, make a presentation and receive verbal feedback in front of peers and academic staff. In addition to increasing stress and inhibiting learning, which may impact more depending on gender and ethnicity, the adversarial structure of the ‘crit’ reinforces power imbalances and thereby ultimately contributes to the reproduction of dominant cultural paradigms. Our collaboration on an alternative to the traditional model was supported by the Teaching & Learning National Seminar Series fund which helped us organise an international symposium to debate the ‘crit’ in 2016. We have recently been awarded further funding which has allowed us to pilot alternative feedback methods.

Horizons and Conscience

Christopher Platt, Josephine Malonza — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0100

At no other time has a student’s knowledge of the world seemed greater and that same world seemed smaller than now. Their global awareness and ethical perspective have developed throughout childhood thanks to education, digital communication and access to international travel. Can meaningful work and geographic and cultural variety satisfy their outward and inward gaze? Is this the deeper motivation in joining a school of architecture? As they imagine their future, how can we help them put their values into practice and reinforce their belief that others’ lives can be improved through their agency as an architect? This paper explores four phases of an ongoing internationally collaborative live project between The Mackintosh School of Architecture at The Glasgow School of Art in the UK (MSA) and The School of Architecture and the Built Environment (SABE) at The University of Rwanda (UR).