Unprincipled: Toward New Values for Foundations Education in Architecture

The architecture profession has faced radical changes over the last decade—the impact ofthe global recession on the building industry, the expanding importance of emerging marketsin developing counties, the increasing demand and desire for alternative forms of practice,and the generational shift in the nature of the workforce, to name a few—and will most likelycontinue to transform dramatically in the years to come. Considering that beginnings oftenshape the ends, is beginning design education, or foundations, situated appropriately torespond to, much less anticipate, these changes? Despite the few recent reports of movestoward radical, experimental pedagogies and the widely held beliefs that technology and“proto-practice” are the answer,2 there is little evidence that foundations education as practicedis anything but traditional, depending on design principles and technique to preparestudents for the profession. Given the unlikelihood that architecture education will be comprehensivelyreformed and that first-year programs are typically last in line for resources,innovative methodologies in foundations must be profound and effective, but simple. Whilebalance, proportion, rhythm, repetition, among many other fundamental guiding design principleswill remain primary in a foundations education, learning outcomes must adapt to meetand even expect shifting demands in the field, focusing less on the principles of design andmore on the capacities graduates need to adjust to an ever-evolving professional landscapeand maintain the vitality of architecture education, if not the profession itself. To focus on thestudent as product rather than what they produce. To instill valuable aptitudes rather than aset of technical, vocational skills. To educate and transform rather than train.

Volume Editors
Robert Corser & Sharon Haar

ISBN
978-1-944214-03-6