Designing for Diversity: Implications for Architectural Education in the Twenty-first Century

This article reviews literature about the need for diversity in schools of architecture and provides statistics documenting the relative lack of diversity, especially among architectural educators. It stresses the need to go beyond affirmative action requirements in order to promote a climate that values differences and manages diversity. It proposes strategies such as writing a diversity plan, restructuring the design evaluation process, and revising the architectural curriculum. It also suggests mentoring and cross-training programs, more-flexible work environments, exit interviews, and public outreach as ways to promote diversity in architectural schools.     

The Canon and the Void

Abstract

Architectural history books play a significant role in conveying the culture, norms, and values of the architectural discipline to newcomers. In recent years, numerous publications have spotlighted the importance of women and African Americans as critics, creators, and consumers of the built environment. Yet, to what extent is this recent discourse on gender and racial issues included in architectural history texts? And how gender or racially inclusive are they? Are twenty-first-century architectural educators presenting newly uncovered architectural histories from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? Building upon prior research, this article seeks to address these issues by examining history texts currently assigned at fourteen leading architectural schools accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. In textbooks with multiple editions, we compared relevant information in both earlier and later versions. Our analysis of these history texts revealed that contributions of women remain only marginally represented in the grand narrative of architecture. And for the most part, African Americans are omitted altogether. We challenge authors to reassess the next generation of architectural history texts and suggest ways to do so.     

我国素质教育模式下的中小学校园空间设计浅析

相对于过去的应试教育,素质教育是依据人的发展和社会发展的实际需要而产生的。总体而言,目前我国中小学校园规划、建筑设计理念、设计标准是与传统教育的以“教师为中心”、“编班授课”特征相匹配的,不能完全满足素质教育的要求。要创造适合素质教育的校园环境,就必须探讨素质教育对中小学校园外部及内部空间设计过程中的促进与影响。     

From the Ground Up

Abstract

Over the coming year, readers of the JAE will see a significant expansion of the Reviews section to include critical commentary on exhibits, symposia, competitions, buildings, practices, films, and, of course, books. In enlarging the scope of this section, the editors wish to open a dialogue and critique around research, modes of inquiry, and new forms of practice as they influence both architectural production and education. In this first article, Dan Hoffman was invited to provide a context for understanding the work of architectural firms such as Duvall Decker whose practices promote new forms of extramural research and inquiry.—The Editors     

Issue PDF

Abstract

As increasing numbers of architecture schools introduce new degree programs based on postgraduate research, often engaging other disciplines, emerging technologies, materials and environmental concerns, this new species of architectural education demands an approach distinct from those that dominate professional programs. The authors present The Stratus Project—an ongoing body of design research investigating kinetic environment-responsive interior envelope systems, as a means of identifying a potential range of issues, models of inquiry and disciplinary influences for postgraduate research.     

Artificial neural networks and naturally ventilated buildings

The author found that the results obtained were reliable and indicates that neural networks can be used as a predictor for investigating window opening configurations to study the effects on interior air motion. Further study is needed in the development of the database to cover wider architectural parameters and the implementation of new types of network is also needed, as well as the need to consider variation spatial coefficients more fully.     

About Tom Schumacher

Abstract

Ethics based on subjectivity and freedom is little recognized as a plausible ground for informing the ethical practice of architectural design. Sartre's existentialism is suited to address the ethical issue of architectural design freedom and subjectivity, and, as such, to contribute to an ethical framework for architectural design practice. Sartre's philosophy is concerned with subjectivity and freedom and focuses on making choices in full awareness and acceptance of personal freedom and responsibility. Drawing on Sartrean concepts, an ethical framework for architectural design practice is proposed. It takes the form of a reflective process aiming at encouraging a clearer awareness of individual design freedom and responsibility that can lead to “authentic” architectural design practice. In this lies the value and significance of the framework for architectural design practice with regard to ethical design dilemmas.     

适应素质教育的中小学建筑空间及环境模式研究

在国家推行素质教育的大政方针指导下,教育学界富有成效的理论研究及中小学教育工作者对素质教育方式的积极探索,为研究适应素质教育的中小学建筑空间与环境模式奠定了基础。归纳整理素质教育的理论及教学方法;探讨中小学教育工作者开展素质教育的意向与教学方法;并在借鉴国外先进国家开展开放式教育成功经验（教育组织方法,学习方法,建筑空间,建筑环境创造）的基础上,研究适应我国素质教育的中小学建筑空间及环境模式,进而探讨适应素质教育的中小学建筑设计理论与方法。     

Time and Chance: A Reply

Abstract

It is argued that the regional survival of buildings from different periods is not the result merely of pure chance and therefore of no significance, but is a meaningful indication of earlier social, economic, as well as architectural history.     

西部开发与建筑学教育的需求及发展战略研究

在国家实施西部大开发时 ,西部地区急需大量的建筑学专业人才 ,而西部地区的建筑学专业又十分落后 ,西部地区各建筑院系应充分发挥自身优势 ,统筹规划制定积极有效的战略措施 ,全面推进西部地区建筑学教育的全面发展     

Design in Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design

Abstract

In what ways can architectural design define identity, or alternatively, challenge received identity? Based on a design pedagogy that experiments with both defamiliarization and dance, we distinguish two ways: (1) in the readymade space of the eye, as meanings other than the received ones can emerge, or (2) in the space-in-the-making of the body, as the reading of meaning in ready-made space alone is challenged, and meaning also emerges in the order of our mutual movement with one another.

Our pedagogy represents a collaboration between an architect and a philosopher, both actively engaged in interdisciplinary education within and between their respective schools as well as with the School of Engineering. From the outset, we saw “design in movement” as a potential framework to foster side-by-side collaboration between disciplines (interdisciplinarity) rather than merely among disciplines (multidisciplinarity).

Design in movement is a complement to traditional architectural design in space. Design in movement allows us to experience, through our bodies, in a way that challenges our deeply ingrained visual culture. If we design in this visual culture without being able to call the culture into question, we do not take advantage of the full range of design's liberative potential: it is one thing to design so as to refuse any single authoritative reading in space, but another to discover an alternative to reading itself. We are investigating how design in movement can motivate new ways of liberative building and inhabiting that challenge the hegemony of design in space.     

建筑排水聚丙烯管道的施工技术

介绍了超静音排水管管材的优良性能及其在使用过程中需注意的一些问题,通过对聚丙烯超静音排水管施工技术、要点的讨论、澄清和提升,以促进建筑聚丙烯超静音排水管施工技术的发展。     

Placing Livestock in Landscape Studies: Pastures New or Out to Graze?

Abstract

This paper reviews research on livestock and landscape. It argues that farm animals have started to occupy a central position in landscape studies, opening up many new pastures for research. Using the example of cattle in the UK, we consider how livestock have been understood as text, as social constructions and as beings with their own lives. In each case, we note how the position of farm animals is contested and there is a need for a diversity of theoretical approaches to understand these differences. The article calls for academics, practitioners and policy-makers to pay greater attention to the myriad ways in which livestock and landscape are intertwined.     

Architecture theory in graphic narrative: The Strange Case of Mister X

This essay begins with a review of Mister X, a comic serial taking architectural modernism as its point of departure. The graphic narrative renders a dystopian view of architecture and urbanism, as well as a biting critique of the architect as theorist. Rather than demonstrating that architecture is mute and impotent, however, the Mister X story theorises architecture as unpredictably powerful and effective, albeit malicious. The essay examines four architectural failures suggested by the Mister X text, identifying how these limitations of the formal, material object of architecture are, paradoxically, its very possibilities for social effect.     

A review of computerized hospital layout modelling techniques and their ethical implications

PurposeThis paper reviews an area of interdisciplinary collaboration in the design of healthcare facilities that attempts to optimize hospital space-planning using automated statistical techniques from the discipline of Operations Research (OR). This review articulates Facility Layout Problems (FLPs) as a general class of OR problems. Furthermore, the review highlights limitations of these techniques, which necessitate an ethical and participatory engagement with computerized processes of healthcare architecture.Design/methodology/approachAn in-depth critical review was carried out, which revealed a number of common themes, collectively theorized as metamodeling processes, or models of models, through which various FLP modelling techniques can be challenged and debated in terms of their architectural viability, and ethical ramifications.FindingsThis review provides a methodological basis for the further evaluation of computational models. It was found that most of the reviewed studies are functionally focused on flow efficiency and, in general, do not consider broader contextual, relational, social, or salutogenic design values.Originality/valueThis review is the first on the subject written from an architectural perspective. It can be used by a broad range of readers as its critical review of past and present hospital layout modelling techniques discusses their capabilities and limitations. As such, it also enables them to consider ethical values while critiquing the epistemology of computational processes hidden beneath algorithmic outputs.     

Architectural Practice and Education in South Africa: From Local Transformation to Global Participation

Abstract

The advent of a democratic dispensation in the Republic of South Africa a decade ago has resulted in considerable challenges for the country's architectural practitioners and academics. This article investigates some of the problems, opportunities, and responses of the democracy that has emerged from the repression and isolation of the apartheid era. The effect of local transformations and globalization on South African architects and educational institutions is described, and the need to develop a responsible local strategy to guide global participation is identified and considered.     

重建福祉——日本中小学校的防灾与灾后重建启示

5.12 汶川特大地震造成了很多学校建筑的倒塌和师生的伤亡,给我们留下了沉痛的教训和反思。从某种意义上说,一个民族的长远进步,总是从反思开始的。日本作为一个对防灾和灾后重建有相当经验的国家, 对其与学校建筑抗震有关的法律、法规、抗震标准和抗震措施等进行研究, 总结其应对地震的经验和特点,可以促进建筑界人士反思,并为完善我国学校建筑标准及设计提供借鉴。     

Plenty of Action in the Square

Abstract

The architectural reenactments presented here study moments of architectural history through performing acts of architecture, undertaking large-scale design-and-build speculation based upon evidence found in action and the transformation of material as well as in text, drawing, and photograph. In analysis, projection, and making, these reenactments propose an understanding of architecture as action and construction as a verb, and seek to engage the nonverbal discourse of the making hand.     

Access to Cities for Teachers: Curriculum-proof Kids through Environmental Studies

Abstract

This paper critically assesses current architectural research, as represented in a sampling of papers presented at ACSA conferences, through the lens of research typologies related to people-place interactions taken from neighboring fields in the social sciences. Specifically, 253 papers from four ACSA conferences were assessed for methodological approaches to their objects of inquiry. This resulted in a tabulation of all the papers into nine methodological categories, ranging from interpretive approaches to causal-experimental approaches to design projects. These nine categories are critically evaluated in light of extant people-place research frameworks from the social science literature. The paper concludes by suggesting that established social science frameworks can help clarify the architectural research realm, particularly in the “interpretive” range, and that “design” offers a unique venue within which sociological approaches such as critical theory and/or grounded theory can find expression.     

Reconceptualizing Architectural Education for a More Diverse Future: Perceptions and Visions of Architectural Students

This article argues that the field of architecture must engage diversity in two senses of the word simultaneously: both in terms of its demographic composition and in terms of the substantive domain of architecture. Increasing the participation of women and minorities in the field should also mean increasing the substantive domain of the profession, and vice versa. We substantiate this argument within the realm of architectural education through a research study involving nearly 650 students at six different architecture schools. The purpose of the study was to investigate the ways in which both the content and the form of architectural education might impede or support the progress of women and minority students. In particular, we focus on three aspects of the “hidden curriculum”: studio pedagogy; social dynamics; and ideals and expectations. We find that women and members of some ethnic groups (particularly African-Americans and Latinos) do tend to experience the social dynamics and pedagogical practices of their educational milieu differently, often more negatively, than their male or majority counterparts. Our findings also reveal that many women and minorities feel that their career goals may be mismatched with the profession as it is currently defined. To the extent that our school programs ignore the dynamics of the hidden curriculum, not only might we be turning away potentially talented students, but we might be crippling a profession that must operate in a rapidly changing cultural and economic context. In that regard, we believe that all students will benefit from a collective reassessment of architecture's pedagogical conventions and of the definitional scope of the field.