Architectural Pedagogies

The Department of Architecture aims to take a stance for the particular character of architectural education, and to build upon the knowledge produced within the education of the department. To make a plea - within the faculty as well as outside- for the importance of architectural thinking and making in education, the group will collect ongoing reflections and publications about the various studio’s, and engage in discussion with the different chairs and studio’s, to bring forward architectural pedagogy as a field of knowledge.

Rather than a delineated research group with internal PhD’s and projects, this Research Line aims to transverse the different groups in the department, collaborating with studio (research) mentors across the department, to reflect on our education, and to bring the results of the bachelor and master studios to the stage of critical discussion.

As a Department of Architecture, we have the responsibility to train future professionals. In order for them to properly address the urgent themes of our built environment, a reflection on the way we educate is crucial. Which are the methodological and epistemological frames of reference of our pedagogical efforts? How does the diversity of positions within our department offer the invitation for students to develop their own position as responsible architectural thinkers and practitioners?

The Department of Architecture has a large task in architectural education. Most of our staff members are working in research and education and in many cases, a mutual influence exists between research and education. Particularly graduation studios serve as laboratories for research and design. Our staff members are publishing about the studio work that we do with the students, and in many of these studios the research outreach goes through the student’s work, often the optimal vehicle to test research input or findings. In addition, the studio setting helps in conveying and transferring knowledge. The knowledge developed in the studios is often developed by making, by doing, by performing and transferred via drawings, images, objects, etc. In other words, the studio setting allows us to speak of the tacit and/or embodied knowledge, knowledge components, we all know, proper of the field of architecture.

The group aims to:

• Bring together ongoing reflections on architectural pedagogies within the department
• Represent the department in Faculty-wide investigations in pedagogy, claiming a key role for design education and architectural thinking
• Bring the pedagogical position(s) of the Department in relation to those of architectural schools abroad