What an Architecture Student Should Know

Jadwiga Krupinska

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317755029
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

It's not just you. Every architecture student is initially confused by architecture school - an education so different that it doesn't compare to anything else. A student's joy at being chosen in stiff competition with many other applicants can turn to doubt when he or she struggles to understand the logic of the specific teaching method. Testimony from several schools of design and architecture in different countries indicates that many students feel disoriented and uncertain.

This book will help you understand and be aware of:

• Specific working methods at architecture schools and in the critique process, so you'll feel oriented and confident.
• How to cope with uncertainty in the design process.
• How to develop the ability to synthesize the complexity of architecture in terms of function, durability, and beauty.

This book is about how architects learn to cope with uncertainty and strive to master complexity. Special attention is given to criticism, which is an essential part of the design process. The author, a recipient of several educational awards, has written this book for architecture students and teachers, to describe how each student can adopt the architect's working method.

Key concepts are defined throughout and references at the end of each chapter will point you to further reading so you can delve into topics you find particularly interesting.

Jadwiga Krupinska is professor emerita at the School of Architecture of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden.

 

 

1 Student uncertainties

Numerous descriptions from different schools of architecture reveal that students have difficulties figuring out what their education is all about. The joy of being chosen in stiff competition among many others can revert to doubt. Many questions arise: Will I make it through the course? Can I live up to my own expectations—and those of others? Does everyone else know more than me? What is actually going on? The transition from the education at high school or other colleges to the one used at an architecture school demands changes. It is rarely explained explicitly that a whole new way of thinking is needed.

Various accounts and results from surveys show that architecture students feel bad because they are worried daily by too many uncertainties. But you can’t say that these studies form a scientifically proven universal truth, because they were not set up very systematically or broadly enough. Also, there is no way of knowing the opinions of the students who did not participate. It is, however, thought-provoking that that testimony about the uncertainties of architecture students comes from different parts of the world, during a span of at least 30 years, and both from schools of architecture and landscape architecture.

To start with, it is about reading social codes. Every new social situation requires a certain adaptation, as described in a thesis from Chalmers University of Technology:

I remember how I noticed that my classmates looked completely normal. They seemed to be a collection of average people between 18 and 40 years old. I also noticed that the students in the upper classes did not look normal in the same way. The majority of them had a style I would soon call “architecty”. I noted that the style did not just include clothing, but instead, a whole concept that could even encompass—believe it or not—body language, facial expressions, opinions, and food habits. It really felt like they had understood something that I had yet to understand. They were on their way toward becoming real architects while I often felt like a forlorn guest. They had all the qualities needed to become something. (Wingård 2004/2005, 15)

Sooner or later you find your place in, or your relationship to, a new social group, but understanding what the education is about can often be more difficult. Swedish architecture students said in surveys from the 1980s:

This education is so different; you can’t compare it with anything else. In the beginning, it was almost a shock.
(Bessman and Villner 1989, 2)

The students’ disorientation increases when, in their first few days at school, they can be asked to forget most of what they have learned, come into the project studio “naked”, and let themselves be led by those whom they often consider the great authorities—their teachers.²

I remember feeling very anxious about my early days in the undergraduate architecture program at Miami University. I was unsure about the way we were being directed toward knowledge, although I was willing to trust that there was a particular design in the minds of our professors…we were expected to unlearn everything we absorbed in high school and before. (Willenbrock 1991, 97)

And it is not just about the projects, but also one’s own identity. It can also be difficult to understand the esoteric terms the teachers are using.

Because the first year involves so many artistic assignments, it was easy to get scared if, like me, you did not have a well-developed artistic pathos. I was amazed by how calm everyone seemed to be when faced by the vaguest assignments, with thousands of possible interpretations. I now know that I was hardly alone. Many of us were extremely nervous. We looked everywhere for clear signals that could guide us in these very difficult creative situations, where no one could say what was right or wrong. I remember being like a sponge, absorbing anything that could make the ground a little more solid. At the same time, I got very tired of no one using clear language, and I still am. (Wingård 2004/2005, 15)

You are more emotionally involved when you’re sitting and struggling with a project presentation than if you take an exam and then are done with it. You are much more engaged. You expose yourself—completely! That is the formative part, the creative part. (Bessman and Villner 1989, 2)

It is especially hard to never get the correct answers; to never know if you’ve got it right or wrong.

It’s not just the start of the course that can be difficult. Many uncertainties remain after the third year, as shown in another study. Students can be unsure about what they know (we’re not taught, we have to find the answers ourselves, then guess), which working methods are available, what the architect’s field of knowledge and methods of practice are, what is good and why, unclear goals and unclear project descriptions.

When asked what the worst part of studying architecture is, one woman says:

The uncertainty; because no one can tell me if I did something wrong, I have to constantly question myself: Have I done something right? Am I good enough? Should I quit right now? (Wingård 2004/2005, 104)

However, that which is considered worst is also considered the most positive, according to some of the students who were interviewed.

The best thing about studying architecture is:

That you are given the freedom to develop your own thoughts. That you get to “do” something and not just write out what you know on a sheet of paper. All the practical and creative work! You plan your own time. There is no right or wrong. You take responsibility for yourself. More like a workplace than a school… Openness. You find yourself and get a chance to express yourself. (Wingård 2004/2005, 107)

One of the methods of architectural education that many students have particular difficulty relating to is critique.

I remember my first desk crit as a landscape architecture student. I was so proud of the work I had produced. “This was good”, I was thinking to myself. My professor didn’t exactly agree. My intentions were questioned. Feedback was given to me on how I could change my work in order to take my ideas to the next level. It took a few minutes to get over my bruised ego and absorb the criticism that I was given before I could continue working on my project. Now that I think about it, I was looking for approval. Instead, I received my first spoonful of criticism. (Graham 2003, 2)

Critiques and assessment reviews as educational methods are covered in many survey answers. I will discuss this in more detail in Chapters 7–9.

Thus there are several aspects that architecture students struggle with. It is a paradox that many students feel disoriented and insecure, just as the architect’s working methods are praised internationally as a way of dealing with precisely that: uncertainties.³

Notes

1 Cited by Forty, 2004 (2000), 136.

2 Willenbrock, L., 1991, 98, 112, my cursives.

3 This interest was sparked by Donald Schön’s pioneering work on the role of refection during practical work. See also Chapter 4.

References

Bessman, Mona; Villner, Lena: Mötet med arkitektur. Lärarnas roll i projektundervisningen. Rapport från det Pedagogiska utvecklingsarbetet vid KTH 1989: 60, 2–3

Forty, Adrian: Words and Buildings. A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture. Thames and Hudson 2000, 136

Graham, Elizabeth Marie: Studio Design Critique: Student and Faculty Expectations and Reality. A Thesis. The School of Landscape Architecture. Christian Brothers University 2003, 2

Willenbrock, Laura L.: An Undergraduate Voice in Architectural Education. In: Dutton, Thomas A (ed.): Voices in Architectural Education. Cultural Politics and Pedagogy.
Bergin & Garvey, New York1991, 97–112

Wingård, Lisa: Om att bli arkitekt (On Becoming an Architect).
In Swedish. Examensarbete Chalmers Arkitektur 2004/2005

2 Professional uncertainties

The architect: a historical overview

As a first step, I want to give an outline of the historical process to approach the questions raised by several students: What is the architectural profession? What is the architect’s role and responsibility in society? Somewhat simplified, one could say that the development of architecture as a profession has been a tug-of-war with the other forces involved in building and construction. During some periods, the architect’s desire for independence, which characterizes creative individuals (see the section entitled “Creative personality” in Chapter 8), has been particularly evident, but not always successful when interacting with the various players in the field of construction.

The concept of arkhitekton was already used by Herodotus in the 5th decade BC. The word is a combination of the Greek word arkhi—from archos, or chief (from the same root as in archbishop)—and tekton (master builder). One could say that the word architect means master of the building arts, or chief master builder. Until recently, this was invariably a man. Traditionally, the architect has always been associated with the rich and powerful, since they were the ones who could afford to build. He had a special position in society, but this did not always mean that he was favored in the social hierarchy. Nevertheless, an architect was not, as Plato describes it, a worker, but was instead the one who actually made the rules for the workers; he supplied knowledge but not the handcraft (Kostof 1977a).

In ancient Egypt he was “the chief (boss) over the foremen” as Ineni, the chief of the workmen in Karnak, was described on...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• 1 Student uncertainties
• 2 Professional uncertainties
• 3 What skills are needed?
• 4 Can I be an autodidact?
• 5 The design process
• 6 Analysis through synthesis—in practice
• 7 Criticism
• 8 Assessment reviews: stage and actors
• 9 Assessment reviews: the presented proposal
• 10 Awareness and understanding
• Illustration credits
• Index