Heads' Meetings 2004
Preparatory meeting in Antwerp, Belgium
Saturday 21 February 2004, Henry Van de Velde Institute, Antwerp, Belgium
Report of the Curriculum/Profession Group
Working Group to investigate professional competencies, professional requirements and academic requirements
by Lawrence Johnston
Membership of the Group was as follows:
Harald Gatermann, Sylvain De Bleeckere, Ramon Sastre, Marina Roosebeeck, Balazs Balogh, Leen Van Duin, Theano Fotiou, Christian Huetz, Roger Liberloo, Limenitakis Claudette, Constantin Spiridonidis, Lawrence Johnston (Chair).
Summary of discussion topics
Discussion on wanting the Professional competencies defined in some way – this might include a glossary of terms and definitions. This could also be in the form of asking three broad groups of people what were their views e.g. employers/professionals, academics, and students.
Discussion on defined functions, what each architect can or cannot do within each state e.g. in Barcelona the actions of the architect are constrained by legislation, in Italy a chaotic confusion has been caused by challenging definitions that have been overthrown by court decisions/tribunal decisions.
Discussion on diversity of architectural services
Discussion that the formation and creation of a Building Management program generated a group of managers who now employ architects
Discussion on whether competencies should be defined at Masters level or at Bachelor level
Several states are developing or have already developed competencies, both professional and academic for their own state use – these could be shared amongst the network of the working group
Discussion on changes in France over 10 years where the dominance of academics, professionals has been changing and now a realisation that architects are no longer as powerful a lobby group as they had been
Discussion on the state of the art of the profession with regard to change and the affect this would have on competencies
Reaction by education providers to that change and how it will influence curricula
How do we cope with that changing content/context/condition, case studies could be useful
Plenary session
Discussion on whether to produce a draft questionnaire or position paper. Draft questionnaire seemed to be favoured. Requests were made for each member of the group to provide one or two questions, which they would like to see, answered as a result of the work. To date these are the ones that have been received:
Leen van Duin provided the following “How there studies to trace the professional careers of alumni and if so what is the dynamic of the profession”
“What are the effects of changes in the curricula on the profession”
“There is a tendency to blur the boundaries between disciplines, what is the state of architecture as a discipline today?”
Harald Gatermann provided the following – “A request for a forward, a short description of the situation in every country, professional standards, types of universities, number of universities, standards given by governments – this could assist the EAAE guidebook”
Marina Roosebeeck provided the following – “How do the 11 rules of the UIA relate to the competencies of the graduates of the Master Education of your institution?”
“What was the influence of changes in the profession on the curricula compared to 10 years ago?”
