EAAE
The Hidden School Papers
EAAE Annual Conference Zagreb August 28th - 31st 2019
Publisher: European Association for Architectural Education
ISBN: 978-90-8312-710-1
Editors: Mia Roth-Čerina, University of Zagreb; Roberto Cavallo, Delft University of Technology
Scientific committee: Oya Atalay Franck, Zurich University of Applied Sciences Winterthur; Roberto Cavallo, Delft University of Technology; Johan De Walsche, University of Antwerp; Harriet Harriss, Royal College of Art; Siniša Justić, University of Zagreb; Mia Roth-Čerina, University of Zagreb; Sally Stewart, Glasgow School of Art; Tadeja Zupančič, Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana
Reviewers: Pnina Avidar, Fontys University of Applied Sciences; Michela Barosio, Politecnico di Torino; Roberto Cavallo, Delft University of Technology; Koenraad Van Cleempoel, Hasselt University; Johan De Walsche, University of Antwerp; Hugo Dworzak, University of Liechtenstein; Harriet Harriss, Royal College of Art; Siniša Justić, University of Zagreb; Riva Lava, National Technical University of Athens; Gunnar Parelius, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Carl Frederik Schetelig, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Carla Sentieri Omarrementeria, Polytechnic University of Valencia; Sally Stewart, Glasgow School of Art; Krunoslav Šmit, University of Zagreb; Tadeja Zupančič, University of Ljubljana; Tonči Žarnić, University of Zagreb.
Published:
2020-12-30
Preface
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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...
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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...
Reflections on the Hidden
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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...
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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...
The Content
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
The Process
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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...
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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...
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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...
The Place
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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.
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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,...
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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 —...
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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...
The Student
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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...
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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...
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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...
The Educator
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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...
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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...
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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...
