Chelsea Colburn

MASTER OF NOTHING. M.No.

 As the world is constantly in flux, with shifting paradigms, natural crises and innovative technologies progressing rapidly; it is evident that architectural education must reflect the profession’s adapting responsibilities. Architectural education continues to stay sedentary while the results needed from it are growing more critically. Time, money, politics and traditional curriculums put a hold on the potentials of design education being deliberative, self-critical, spontaneous and, most importantly, pertinent to the needs of our conditions. Education must begin to teach designers to be confident in developing individual skillsets, in order to foster the understanding of the basics of standardized systems, to conclude in adjusting them through a critical lens. Further, architectural education must promote collaborative engagement with other disciplines over independent, self-contained practices to facilitate a pedagogy that balances curriculum with non-isolated perspective. 

  Moreover, “the current educational model made sense in the 1980’s”¹  says Patrik Schumacher, Principal Architect of Zaha Hadid Architects. The outdated expectations of the practice of architecture puts pressure on the young designer to function as a well-rounded “master of everything”. The designer who is fearful to say “I don’t know” and critique the standardized systems, while simultaneously operating at a speed to meet economic standards. Time for creativity and contemplation of ways architecture can better touch the world is diminished by faulting to the hostile systems and templates digital networks have replaced the hand with. 

  This thesis explores how new architecture curriculums can reimagine stagnant systems of architectural practice. The intentions seek new ways of educating designers in the same operations architecture needs to function to fulfil meeting the responsibilities of our future worlds. The work will be grounded in place and self, honesty, critique and accountability to propose a system of education that balances relevant curriculum and self-narrative. 
 

  1. Tom Ravenscroft, “Architecture education is in crisis and detached from profession, says Schumacher,” Dezeen, July 9, 2019, https://www.dezeen.com/2019/07/09/patrik-schumacher-crisis-architectural-education/amp/.