The Workshop on Educational Innovation in Architecture (JIDA) promotes reflection and debate among the faculty of the different schools of architecture. The communications presented in the five editions held so far (2013-2017) can be considered a “living archive” of the teaching practices of more than thirty Spanish and twenty foreign universities. This material is extremely helpful for improving the education of architects and to lay the foundations for research into the instructional scenario in this discipline. With this purpose in mind, work is being done on a constellation of terms related to pedagogical practices, which is intended to conceptualize the diversity of strategies and methodologies presented these years at the conference. This sample of teaching experiences is a base upon which to consider the current situation of schools of architecture and to ask ourselves: what will training be like for architects 20 years from now?

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The JIDA conference: Teaching practice as research

Today, interior education is characterized by many and variegated approaches and interpretations. Worldwide it is a field in rapid transformation and in search of identity based upon vivid explorat...

Back to basics in interiors education: The morphology of interior space

There is no a discipline more needed of pedagogical reformulation than Architecture and, particularly, the area of Architectural Projects in which a group of teachers work, within the new degree of Architecture at the University of Zaragoza. The construction from scratch of the teaching content has allowed a less conditioned and more unified formulation. We have carried out a set of Teaching Innovation Projects that have enabled a framework for discussion on various methodologies, confirming it as a necessity to counterbalance a certain academic inertia that, in the past, did not realize this importance. A teaching methodology has been established, integrated with technical subjects making matter, and its relationship to technique, a k-component of the project since its inception. The aim of this paper is to present these results –reflected in the related publications– like tests of a new way of addressing the issues of architectural teaching.

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Metodología e innovación docente del Proyecto Arquitectónico: la experiencia del Departamento de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Zaragoza

Quality has become the initial concern of almost all institutions. Whether producing goods or providing services, these institutions realized that effective quality management will improve their standards and therefore will make them more profitable. Universities as institutions of service and sometimes production have been carefully establishing proper means to manage the quality of their research and education. In order to manage quality of education, departments in the universities should have the necessary knowledge regarding their services. The present study was structured to find out the parameters of quality in architecture education. In this research three different assessment procedures were carried out in different phases. In the first phase, descriptive appraisals were conducted to define the elements of quality education in Architecture. The second phase was for analysing the existing curricula of two schools considering to what extent they fulfil the quality requirements stated in ACE quality directive for architecture education. The third phase was structured to examine students’ and instructors’ perception in terms of satisfaction. Findings of the survey revealed that the architecture schools in northern Cyprus need to make necessary modifications to meet the expectations of their students and faculty members regarding quality. Consequently, the universities with architectural programs should redefine the role, purpose and responsibilities of their schools and should use research and practice based information to determine their administrative and academic policies and practices regarding quality.

Assessing the quality of architecture schools

The beginning of the learning of the architectural project is possibly one of the most memorable beginnings that any architect can undertake in his training. It is the starting point of an activity that will accompany you throughout your career. A learning that, in these early years of waking up to architectural creation, becomes exciting and intense. This paper aims to define a series of approaches in the teaching of the architectural project that, centered on the recognition of the student in the initial stages of his training as an architect, support his initiation in learning in the process of projecting through the establishment of a series of training strategies that offer a progress in the teaching of the architectural project based on a formative teaching, focused on developing personal attitudes and skills that foster creative thinking and that foster a capacity for criticism, analysis and reflection.

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Enseñando a ser arquitecto/a. Iniciación al aprendizaje del proyecto arquitectónico

As a result of the Bologna Process, the need to connect higher education with research has become an important issue. For a discipline such as architecture, this seems to put the traditional and well-established equilibrium between theory and praxis under pressure, or even under threat.

Research is undertaken in order to construct knowledge through the acquisition of insight and understanding, with the aim of sharing the results. In architecture schools, design lies at the heart of the educational programme, with the design studio being the central locus. Since design and research are inextricably linked, the relationship between knowledge production and the design process has become a subject of investigation.

The interweaving of research and design-based architectural education also affects the relationship between teaching and design. This book focuses explicitly on connections: the connections between the construction of knowledge and theory, teaching and learning, design and research. In doing so, it broadens the research spectrum and others new approaches to research and teaching.

This inspiring essay volume demonstrates the predilection for experiment within the design studio, the ceaseless impulse for change, the reorientation of studio assignments, and the power inherent in the enquiring minds of the hugely dedicated studio teachers.

Theory by design : architectural research made explicit in the design studio

The authors reflect on the academic bachelor and master programs of architecture. From the perspective of higher education policy in Flanders, Belgium, they examine the intrinsic challenges of the academic educational setting, and the way architectural education can fit in and benefit from it, without losing its specific design oriented qualities. Therefore, they unravel the process of architectural design research, as a discipline-authentic way of knowledge production, leading to the identification of a number of implicit features of an academic architectural learning environment. The disquisition is based on educational arguments pointed out by literature and theory. Furthermore, the authors analyze whether this learning environment can comply with general standards of external quality assurance and accreditation systems. Doing so, they reveal the Achilles’ heel of architectural education: the incompatibility of the design jury with formalized assessment frameworks. Finally, the authors conclude with an advocacy for academic freedom. To assure the quality of academic architectural programs, it is necessary that universities maintain a critical attitude towards standardized policy frameworks.

Architectural Education and Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area: Design Research as a Plea for Academic Freedom

http://journal.julypress.com/index.php/aes/article/download/33/51

Translation: Sentiment: The Basis for Developing Aesthetic Judgment

This chapter examines the origins for the crit jury system and its central role in the architecture programme. In this chapter, however, I maintain that the well-known (but too easily maligned?) jury can still be considered as a valuable and edifying format. It explores the role of the jury and judgement and makes a case for recalibrating the jury system. 

Johan De Walsche

Papers

Theory by design : architectural research made explicit in the design studio

Architectural Education and Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area: Design Research as a Plea for Academic Freedom

Translation: Sentiment: The Basis for Developing Aesthetic Judgment

Recalibrating the Design Jury