Educational Imbalance in the Study of Architecture

        There is a general consensus in the field of Architecture as an academic discipline that it should characterise both art and science, with an additional argument that it is also considered as practice, because society and clients requiring architectural services require several constraints and complexities which are all critical for architecture to stay vital. In terms of the education that aspiring architects get, an important question that should be asked is whether they are receiving adequate opportunity for education in all three aspects. The absence of lack of one or more of these components will result to an educational imbalance.

        In the United States, educational imbalance occurs because most of its schools of architecture, most of awards programs that draw sponsorship from architects and many professional journals all cultivate the perception that the artistic side of architecture alone is exciting, intellectually satisfying, and worthy to be recognised, while architecture as a science is generally perceived to be a burden, something that is only learned because of necessity and learned with the minimum amount of knowledge required. The idea that the scientific side of architecture involves imagination, creativity or design skills is interesting by its own merits. As for architecture and its practices, this is generally perceived to be the responsibility of the employer who will hire the student when he or she eventually graduates. However, many architectural firms have problems in stabilizing their work load and others cannot afford to do on-the-job training for new hires because of austerity measures. Another critical aspect of the completion of a project relies on the strong working relationship with clients, users, government agencies and other parties who all have a hand in the project.

        So how did an educational imbalance develop? It is because majority of an aspiring architect's education is through “the Studio” which uses a learning format that allows students to develop their own projects while they are guided and criticised by their teachers. Unfortunately, the faculty teaching students in the Studio setting subscribes to the school of thought of architecture as art. To remedy the educational imbalance, changes should be allowed in the Studio to allow students to further explore the aspects of architecture as science and practice and integrate this into the curriculum.