Heads' Meetings 2002
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
SOCRATES ERASMUS PROGRAMME
EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION
5th Meeting of Heads of European Schools of Architecture
Hania, Greece, Main Arsenal, 4-7 September 2002
TOWARDS A COMMON EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION SPACE IN ARCHITECTURE
Host:
CENTER FOR MEDITERRANEAN ARCHITECTURE
Under the auspices of the
School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Wednesday 4 September
19:30 – 20:30 Opening Session
20:30 – 21:00 Refreshment Break
21:00 – 22:00 Keynote Lecture
by Emeritus Prof. Dimitris A. Fatouros (Athens,Greece)
Who Cares
22:00 Welcome Dinner offered by the EAAE
Thursday 5 September
9:30 – 10:30 Constantin Spiridonidis (Thessaloniki, Greece) Hania Meeting: Past and Future
10:30 – 11:00 Richard Foque (Antwerp, Belgium)
Introduction to the themes and issues for discussion.
11:00 Coffee Break
Session 1 11:30 – 13:00
Curricula for Architectural Education in the Common European Higher Education Space
Chairmen: Richard Foque, Constantin Spiridonidis
11:30 – 13:00 Introduction to Session 1:
Kees Doevendans “A European Curriculum in Architecture”
13:00 Lunch
Workshop 1 14.30 – 16:30
The recent reforms in the content and the structure of School curricula, which have been made by various Schools of Architecture in the name of the convergence to the European policies have proved that in many cases the content of studies but also the strategies for its organization have come with interesting divergence and incompatibilities. Could it be possible that the debate on the type of degree awarded (Bachelor or Masters) has distanced us and made us drift and shift from the actual discussion on the content of studies and the basic principles that should underline their organization? It is relatively easy to observe that the accession of Schools to the proposed schema of the two degrees (Bachelor and Masters) is decided upon and filtered through fundamentally different attestations on architectural education, a fact which makes the critical recording of the various trends absolutely necessary and essential. Neither in a utopian pursuit of the ideal, nor in the perspective of the indirect imposition of some of these trends in the form of instruction or suggestion, but in the perspective of mapping which will allow or support the identification and the effective communication between Schools that share common principles in the ways they teach architecture.
Discussion Group 1 Coordination by Francois Tran(Lyon, France), James Horan (Dublin, Ireland) and Kees Doevendans (Eindhoven, Netherlands).
Discussion Group 2 Coordination by Dimitris Kotsakis (Thessaloniki, Greece) Guido Morbeli (Torino, Italy)and Johan Verbeke (Brussels, Belgium)
16:30 – 17:00 Coffee Break
17:00-18:00 Keynote Lecture
By Suzana and Dimitris Antonakakis (Athens,Greece)
Thoughts on Architecture: the Defined and the Interminable
21:00 Dinner offered by the Center for Mediterranean Architecture (CMA)
Friday 6 September
Session 2 9:30 – 13:00
Exchange and Collaboration between Schools of Architecture in the European Higher Education Space
9:30 – 11:00 Introduction to Session 2
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break
Workshop 2 11:30 – 13:30
Mobility is a key word in constructing European policies in the Higher Education space. What are architectural education’s expectations of this mobility? Why do Schools want and need mobility? What do they expect their students are going to gain from it? The model of student who collects credits from different schools; what problems does it resolve and what problems might it generate to schools of architecture? It would be true to say that school exchanges developed ad hoc and are based on personal relationships and acquaintances. Most Schools do not have an organized and well-thought out policy on cooperation between universities. Often the incompatibility of the programmes of study makes these exchanges problematic with no real gain either for students or for teachers. Even in the case of the implementation of ECTS, which defines the way of awarding credits, the credits of one school do not necessarily correspond to the real teaching hours and coursework of its partner school. It is, therefore, important for schools to adopt exchange strategies for effective and constructive academic exchanges in the Common Higher Education Space in Europe. The Fifth Meeting will investigate the various approaches to the subject in order for some general principles to be articulated which will reflect the particularities of architectural education and the diversity of architectural studies in Europe.
Discussion Group 1 Coordination by Alan Bridges(Glasgow, United Kingdom) Christian Huetz (Regensbourg, Germany) and Stefan Wrona (Warsaw, Poland),
Discussion Group 2 Coordination by Joao Antunes (Setubal Portugal) Nur Caglar (Ankara, Turkey) and Francis Nordemann (Darnetal France)
13:30 Lunch
Session 3 15:00 – 17:00
The European Higher Education Space in Architecture and the Professional and Institutional Context
The changes that are scheduled in the light of the European convergence affect the relationship of Schools of Architecture with the profession and its legislative context. This relationship is undergoing dynamic reforms, which architectural education, however, follows passively. The more the cuts of governmental funds that support education the more the search for external funding, rarely with nothing in return. In this context, the autonomy of Higher Education Institutions -a unique characteristic of the constitution of academia for centuries- is subverted. On top, professional bodies aim to influence education and the respective curricula restructuring to meet the needs of the profession and the labour market with specialised employees. This often shifts programmes of studies from educational to training environments. The redefinition of such relationships constitutes an important issue for the future of architectural education in Europe and has to be confronted collectively. The Meeting suggests the discussion of this issue with the intention to structure the principles, which will ensure a fruitful collaboration with professional bodies on a national and European level, while it would protect schools autonomy to organize and manage their curricula.
17:00 – 17:30 Coffee Break
17:30-18:30 Keynote Lecture
By Dan Hanganu (Montreal, Canada)
Theory and Praxis
EAAE General Assembly 16:30-17:45
21:00 Dinner offered by the ENHSA
Saturday 7 September
Session 4 9:30 – 13:00
Quality Assurance and Academic Assessment of Educational Programmes in Architecture in the European Higher Education Space
9:30 – 10:30 Introduction to Session 1
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break
Workshop 4 11:00 – 13:00
In the last Meeting of Heads, the EAAE committed itself to the participants to undertake initiatives in the direction of the development of a quality assurance and assessment system tailored to the needs of architectural education and respecting its diversity. It became clear that this system would refer to the ‘academic’ assessment of the educational programmes by means of a peer review and not to the ‘profes¬sional/ govern¬men¬tal’ assessment of the diploma leading to the accreditation and the validation by the professional/ governmental bodies of the member states. The problem of academic evaluation, and the effective assurance of the quality of architecture school curricula, is a thorny subject in many ways. The perspective for the creation of a European system of evaluation is a challenge despite the obvious difficulties it entails. Along these lines, a first step is to record and discuss the various methods employed by schools of architecture and assess their efficiency given the particularities of architectural education and its divergence in the structure and organization of studies in different schools of architecture in Europe. ENHSA has already scheduled the construction of a record of the various quality assurance systems in Europe and a questionnaire will soon be circulated to all Schools. The conclusions of this inquiry will be presented during this session.
Discussion Group 1 Coordination by Carlos Weeber (Delft, Netherlands), Michele Tilmont (Lyon, France) and Angel-Luis Fernandez(Madrid, Spain).
Discussion Group 2 Coordination by Thom Gorst (Birmingham, United Kingdom) Stafan Henriksson (Stockholm, Sweden)and Andreas Wagner (Karlsruhe, Germany)
13:00 Lunch
Session 5 14:30-17:00
Plenary Session: Conclusions and Proposals for Future Actions and Initiatives
This session will develop on two axes. On the first axis, there will be an attempt to synthesize the discussions and suggestions made in the previous days with the ambition to put together a new Hania Statement like the year before. On the second axis, the Actions of the Thematic Network will be further scheduled and tasks will be allocated so that more Partner Schools get involved while new ones join in.
Sessions’ Coordination by Constantin Spiridonidis (Thessaloniki, Greece), Richard Foque (Antwerp, Belgium) and Herman Neuckermans (Leuven, Belgium).
18:00 Pick-up from Main Arsenal.
Excursion in the Region.
21:30 Dinner offered by the Municipality of Hania.
