by Michael J. Monti, Executive Director

This weekend the AIA is hosting an Emerging Professionals Summit in Albuquerque. They will bring together around 60 people from a range of sectors and age ranges in the profession to talk about how “practice culture can be shaped to prepare current and future architects for their role in society.” 

President Norman Millar, myself, and Lian Chang will be participating for ACSA. Look for some updates over the weekend and beyond on how things turn out.

This is an important, if anodyne, goal. But it can be an elusive one, given the challenge of influencing culture. I expect the AIA leadership will push the group for concrete ideas that they can translate into programs that support the development of students into practitioners, not to mention AIA members.

The participants are broken into four working groups: Education, Firm Culture & Practice, Licensure, and Career Advancement.

The Education group received a prompt from its facilitator, which seemed on the whole an adequate high-level summary of the state of discussions or concerns about education. I’m not sure I agree that NAAB accreditation of degrees that mix architecture with business is a high priority, but the other statements about the concerns of what education should deliver for students and for the profession is a good starting point.

What do you think?

Framing Statement for Education Working Group of Emerging Professionals Summit

Within the schools, curriculum discussions are related to what skills should be learned in school versus those learned in practice, and what role schools have in ensuring that their students are “job-ready” upon graduation. Practitioners are interested in graduates who can produce value immediately, but also recognize that education is valuable for teaching how to think, not just what to think.

Students are eager to learn as much as possible, but have two fears: first, finding a job, and second, landing in a job that does not help them develop additional skills necessary to become a well-rounded practitioner. Students also rightfully question whether a low percentage of registered architects on faculty affects their educational breadth.

Most states require an applicant for architect registration to have graduated from a school accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting board, NAAB. NAAB holds sole national responsibility for accrediting programs to grant Bachelor of Architecture, Master of Architecture, or Doctor of Architecture degrees.

Currently, NAAB is in the midst of a five year review cycle that will impact the conditions for accreditation in 2016. The feedback from schools has been to simplify the accreditation process and allow more flexibility in how the school can prove compliance with the conditions.

Additionally, some schools are offering cross-disciplinary programs that allow students to work with other departments, especially in the realm of design-thinking being applied to business programs. How NAAB would approach accrediting cross-disciplinary programs and whether a licensing board would allow a  2014 Emerging Professionals Summit graduate of such a program to take the registration exam are questions that will likely become more pressing in coming years.