#deans
Schools are not mere objects of control.
To design an effective pedagogical approach, requires a critical engagement with the philosophical and sociological underpinnings of education. In the field of architecture, it is essential to adhere to a set of principles of pedagogical systems recognising the value of these fundamental disciplines as devices architects must consider as practice.
Paulo Freire’s perspective on educational systems as instruments of control resonates in Foucault’s insights on disciplinary power. Inducing conformity, both discuss how knowledge and power are deeply connected for both institutions and individuals. Colomina’s study of the relations of mediation in architectural spaces facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of a methodological system made by self-empowerment, devices and resistance. From the context of 1970’s radical pedagogies to contemporary social constructions of space, place and gender (Massey), we have added a set of critical engagement stages of agency and politics architecture must consider in both academic and non-academic practice.
Deans are not mere political enforcers.
Deans act as gatekeepers, facilitating, mediating and negotiating their thoughts on the school within a suggested school of thought. Their role may also be considered a potential political instrument, particularly when viewed as a component of a broader pedagogical apparatus oriented towards addressing the pressing issues society is facing. Pivotal, bridging ideology, society and the school, they influence the community from a historically holistic approach. This is a recognisable modus operandi on architectural thought and practice, evidenced by the effective control of context, conceptualisation and the proposal of the discipline as a project. Somehow analogous to historical, theoretical and design this methodology relies on dialectical inputs from academic and non-academic stimulus.
Maintaining this theoretical system is challenging for both deans and practitioners, as society requires schools to engage in a more heuristic mode of operation on reality. Contributions from deans are shaping pedagogical approaches more than ever. Their relation to politics, notion of space and use of power is evident and public and influences a community that will practice architecture based on their experience with a school of thought, taught at school.
Using provocative illustrations in a visual essay, the proposal gathers the discourse of a generation of significant agents of the discipline, operated from two pivotal works.
Buildings themselves do not create culture, but they serve the medium from which a culture on architecture is reproduced. 1971 Ciudad Abierta – Inauguración
discourse/interviews
- 1964 GSD Sarah Whiting
- 1970 EAD Iván Ivelic Yanes
- 1971 GSAPP Andrés Jaque
- 1972 FAUP Joaquim Moreno
- 1978 MARCH Markus Miessen
Buildings as frameworks for education – 2009 ENSA Nantes – Lacaton & Vassal – credits: Phillipe Ruault
Bibliography
- Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogia do oprimido. Paz e Terra.
- Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Pantheon Books.
- Bourdieu, P. (1979). La distinction: Critique sociale du jugement. Éditions de Minuit.
- Chadoin, O. (2021). Sociologie de l’architecture et des architectes. Parenthèses.
- Colomina, B., Galán, I. G., Kotsioris, E., & Meister, A.-M. (Eds.). (2022). Radical pedagogies: Why human intelligence still beats algorithms. The MIT Press.
- Jaque, A. (2019). Mies y la gata Niebla: Ensayos sobre arquitectura y cosmopolítica. Puente Editores.
- Fuller, J. (2023, March 15). Scratching the Surface—227. Andrés Jaque (227).
- Fuller, J. (2023, March 29). Scratching the Surface—230. Sarah Whiting.
- Massey, D. B. (1994). Space, place, and gender. University of Minnesota Press.
- Massey, D. B. (2005). For space. SAGE.
- Miessen, M., Maric, M., Nájera, C. R., & Cane, F. (2024, January 21). Cultures of Assembly—CoA 10. On Architecture and Politics with Oana Bogdan and Olaf Grawert. (10).
- Blunderfield, M. (2024, January 24). Scaffold—97: Apparata (79).