Teaching
architecture
Emilio Faroldi, Maria Pilar Vettori
LetteraVentidue
Syracuse 2020
ABSTRACT
Can design be taught? What is the paradigm that encompasses the theoretical and applicative-experiential spheres of the discipline of architecture? Architecture is a heteronomous discipline, which finds its reasons in the hybridisation and contamination of knowledge. The training of the architect, both intellectual and technical figure, requires a deep and radical reflection on the foundations of training courses, the relevance of teaching models and learning tools. The Schools of Architecture represent the context in which the student, to borrow the words of Louis I. Kahn, is called upon to reflect on his or her own future. Kahn, is called upon to reflect on everything that is exchanged and on its usefulness. As a place of learning, experimentation and verification of the most advanced techniques and tools of a discipline, institutions must necessarily open up their cultural and didactic project to critical comparison, in a logic of enrichment of horizons and international vision. The School, a place where knowledge is produced and transformed, aims to train graduates who are competent in the field of the conception, design, construction and management of architecture: figures capable of facing the challenge of the complexity of the project, seen as an act of synthesis of skills. The polytechnic approach is the key to the training of recognisable, complementary and synergic professionals in a changing professional and productive scenario that requires skills and tools aimed at operating flexibly, in tune with contemporary demands. The comparison between excellent institutions on the European scene characterised by a common polytechnic matrix, the School of Architecture Urban Planning Construction Engineering (AUIC) of the Politecnico di Milano and the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, represents an opportunity for reflection aimed at triggering an active and constructive dialogue on methods and tools for teaching architecture.
