Construction Thematic Subnetwork
2004
Call for the Third EAAE-ENHSA Workshop of Construction Teachers Sub-network
Visions for the Future of Construction Education:
Teaching Construction in a Changing World
School of Architecture , National Technical University of Athens ,
Greece , 27-29 May 2004
The EAAE-ENHSA Construction Teachers' Sub-network had its first workshop in May 2002.
Construction teachers from many European schools of architecture presented and discussed the content of the construction teaching and its role in the framework of European contemporary architectural education curricula. In May 2003, at the second workshop of the Network the discussion focused on teaching methodologies using as vehicle to approach this subject the key construction exercises taught in more than forty schools of architecture around Europe participating in the workshop. Both of these two workshops contributed to formulating a more or less clear view on the different contemporary versions of construction education offered to students by European Schools of Architecture. Both of these two workshops contributed to answer the question ‘where we are' with regard to the teaching of construction and to the competences this teaching can ensure to our graduates.
The theme for the third workshop of the Construction teachers' Sub-network is emerging by the question ‘where we are going' . This question rose from the debates of the last workshop. It was agreed by the participants that such question could become an interesting platform to investigate the future of a competent construction education in Europe . A construction education sensitive to the unbelievably fast-changing values of our contemporary culture; responsive to the extremely fast transformations of our every day life and attitudes; alert to the incredibly fast development of technological possibilities and infrastructures; conscious of the tremendously rapid transformations of the logics and the ideas which generate contemporary architecture; attentive to an increasingly unstable labour market and a more and more specialised professional practice; informed about the amazingly big variety of totally new construction materials and techniques; aware of the rapid deterioration of the environment and of the imperative necessity for a built environment, less energy-consuming and more sustainable; but always sensitive to the traditional values of the act of building and insightful as well as respectful to the historic roots and to the cultural richness of the construction culture of a place.
‘Visions for the Future of Construction Education: Teaching Construction in a Changing World' is the title of this workshop. Its main objectives are to investigate the extent to which the teaching methods and practices we are actually applying to our schools to educate students on construction are able, to effective and efficiently cope with the new demands imposed by a fast changing world; to inspect whether with the construction education we offer them, our students are ready to handle successfully their professional life in a demanding, competitive and extremely unstable profession; to scrutinise if our teaching strategies, knowledge and methods are really so diachronic and time resistant as we think, or whether it seems necessary to re-think their values and objectives, to re-formulate their structure and contents and to re-structure the means and the techniques of their transmission. To reconsider the limits of our teaching responsibility in light of the not very rare remark that construction is far from being the favorite subject of our students, or in light of the not so rare frustration that governs our graduates when undervalued at the start of their professional careers due to lack of the necessary competences on contemporary building production.
The aim of the Third Workshop is to capitalize previously gained experience by nourishing it with the visions for the future of construction education in Europe . In other words the workshop aims to facilitate the transition from present facts to future possibilities or from ‘where we are' to ‘where we are going'.
As a vehicle for this facilitation we are proposing two parallel and complementary topics.
The first one concerns the expected profile of young architects after graduation which will allow them to confront the world of architectural practice in a changing society where common demands tend to be on constant reformulation. The competencies and skills or essential requirements provided through construction teaching to effectively work in the real and changing world.
The second topic concerns the educational methods which will ensure the acquisition of these competences and skills. In other words the ways (teaching methodology as well as structure of courses) in which the competences and skills of a graduate can be ensured.
The workshop is debate oriented. You are invited to contribute to the debates by writing a paper of 3000 words to present your views, ideas, experiences and proposals on the two abovementioned topics. You will have to provide an abstract of your papers in 500 words by April 30 for the organizing committee to finalise the programme of the workshop. In order to allow you to reassess your views in light of the debates taking place at the workshop, you are asked to finally submit your papers by the end of June.
To better organise your written contribution which will in turn organise the debates, the workshop proposes the connection of each of the two topics (competences and methods) with each of the following four themes:
Session 1. The teaching of Construction and contemporary Architecture
• What should be the necessary competences and skills acquired through construction education that allow architecture graduates to be capable of following the attestations and changing trends of contemporary architecture, the architecture that charms the students of today?
• What should be the necessary educational methods and strategies to ensure competences and skills acquired through construction education that allow architecture graduates to be capable of following the attestations and changing trends of contemporary architecture, the architecture that charms the students of today?
Session 2. The teaching of Construction and the new materials and techniques
• What should be the necessary competences and skills acquired through construction education that allow architecture graduates to be capable of following the rapid development of the building industry in producing new materials and new construction methods respectively?
• What should be the necessary educational methods and strategies to ensure competences and skills acquired through construction education that allow architecture graduates to be capable of following the rapid development of the building industry in producing new materials and new construction methods respectively?
Session 3. The teaching of Construction and the Environment
• What should be the necessary competences and skills acquired through construction education that allow architecture graduates to be responsive to the sensitivities and consciousness of our society towards the environment, sustainability and energy conscious design?
• What should be the necessary educational methods and strategies to ensure competences and skills acquired through construction education that allow architecture graduates to be responsive to the sensitivities and consciousness of our society towards the environment, sustainability and energy conscious design?
Session 4. The teaching of Construction and the rare and traditional knowledge
• What should be the necessary competences and skills acquired through construction education that allow architecture graduates to be capable of encouraging the creative encapsulation and synthesis of particular knowledge deriving from the construction culture of a place to new construction logics and practices?
• What should be the necessary educational methods and strategies to ensure competences and skills acquired through construction education that allow architecture graduates to be capable of encouraging the creative encapsulation and synthesis of particular knowledge deriving from the construction culture of a place to new construction logics and practices?
The expected outcome of the workshop is to attempt a mapping –not necessarily a synthesis– of the visions for the future of construction education. Furthermore, it is expected that certain levels of consensus will be achieved in relation to some commonly agreed landmarks recognised within the subject-specific area of construction. In any case, this is the mission of a construction teachers' network to identify and record these landmarks. Construction teaching in each school can select and combine the landmarks in different ways, by taking complementary or alternative options by following different paths. This way the network will be able to encourage diversity, and preserve schools' freedom and autonomy.
