Educators are increasingly warning about a “crisis” in architecture education today, especially related to a misuse of modeling software and simple form-generating paradigms as a substitute for teaching and learning fundamentals.  They warn of architecture’s loss of authority and autonomy, of education’s increasing irrelevance with respect to the profession and the future.  But the voices are far from unified in how to approach the problem.

In 2004, Jorge Silvetti’s article “The Muses are Not Amused” (in Harvard Design Magazine, no. 19, special issue on Architecture as Conceptual Art?) railed against a “pandemonium in the house of architecture.”  Silvetti was disturbed by a “progressive dissipation of the centrality of our mission as educators to teach and learn rigorously and vigorously about form-making and its consequences.”  He considers the “neglect” of form-making to be “nothing less than suicidal for a profession whose creativity and standing depends ultimately on its absolute command of this unique and difficult task.”  He writes of a “deceptive euphoria” about a proliferation of design approaches that purport to create significant form, but don’t.  His “victims” or targets of attack are “programatism,” “thematization,” “blobs,” and “literalism.”  These problematic but increasingly popular approaches to design “are turning the architect into a dazed observer of seductive wonders.”

Instead of using sources outside of architecture to drive the creation of facile forms, Silvetti calls for architecture to return to itself: “architecture as the sole course of architecture could look at anything as formal inspiration, but from its inside out, keeping footings in its building core, anchoring its imagination in programmatic research beyond literal formal translations, and continuing in the flow of its own cultural trajectory, both responsive to and critical of its conventions, which does not imply the literal figurative use of referents.”  He calls for more disciplinary “autonomy,” a return to the specific muse of architecture, without denying the “intertextuality” and cultural “contamination” that we so much appreciate now in architecture.

In 2005, Thom Mayne’s address to the AIA urged all architects to embrace the computer, integrated practice, building information modeling (BIM), and the new possibilities these bring to the profession.  He writes of how the profession has changed since he graduated from school  in 1969: “Since then architecture has been eviscerated. We’re cake decorators, we’re stylists. If you’re not dealing in the direct performance of a work and if you’re not building it and taking responsibility for it, and standing behind your product, you will not exist as a profession.”

For Mayne, the solution is the 3D design thinking enabled by the computer, especially 3D modeling, both in the screen, and the new fabrication methods, for models, and construction.  “The tools we now utilize simplify potentialities and make them logical, allowing us to produce spaces that even ten years ago would have been difficult to conceive, much less build.  Anything that is possible is realizable… There exists a new medium, a continuity, a flow of thinking, a design methodology which is more cohesive from the first generative ideas, through construction, coordinating millions of bits of discrete data.”  His mandate is to “change or perish”: “You need to prepare yourself for a profession that you’re not going to recognize a decade from now, that the next generation is going to occupy.”  He seeks “less emphasis on designing in the traditional sense–styling, let’s say–and more emphasis on making.” With respect to education, he writes: “I haven’t drawn a plan for five years. I go to schools now that are still drawing plans and sections, and I have no idea what to talk about. Because once you start getting used to these tools, it’s like flying a jet plane and then going back and flying a prop… Once you get used to working three-dimensionally, there’s no going back. It represents a new totality.”

This month, Tim Love’s article “Between Mission Statement and Parametric Model” (Places blog), wrote provocatively: “A crisis in architectural education is brewing. I refer to the increasingly contentious divide between that cadre of junior faculty who espouse the gee-whiz form-making made possible by speculative parametric modeling and an Inconvenient Truth-influenced student body demanding design studios that prioritize social relevance and environmental stewardship.  The inherent tension between these cultural positions has not yet been fully registered by design faculties nor acted upon with specific curricular reform — yet it’s hard to miss.”

Love continues: “On the one hand, the situation is generating strange, hybridized manifestations in design studios — notably the ubiquitous son-of-the-Yokohama Port Terminal proposal: an undulating green roofscape blanketing habitable space below.  On the other hand, many schools and departments are busy reforming their programs to better integrate sustainability criteria into studio exercises, often at the expense of other aspects of design thinking. But in this swing from decontextualized digital experimentation to heightened social responsibility, design education is being compromised. A generation of young architects is graduating into professional practice with scant ability to construe and elaborate an architectural agenda that begins with a set of a priori social and cultural intentions and ends with a constructed environment. Only by examining both the causes of this situation and current pedagogical tendencies can a better approach to design education emerge.”  In the end, he calls for educators to look at practice for ways to solve the dilemma.

You may not have heard of him, but he’s worth hearing about. Laureate of the 2009 Pritzker Architecture Prize (the Nobel Prize of Architecture), Peter Zumthor has contributed much to the development of architecture. One of the most interesting aspects about his work, I think, is the deliberate thought he gives to the life that is happening in and around the buildings he creates. In the manner of a poet, Zumthor describes one experience that led him to a heightened awareness of his built environment: “That door handle [on the door to my aunt's garden] still seems to me like a special sign of entry into a world of different moods and smells. I remember the sound of gravel under my feet, the soft gleam of the waxed oak staircase. I can hear the heavy front door closing behind me as I walk along the dark corridor and enter the kitchen.”

Zumthor has a small portfolio compared to many well-recognized architects throughout the world. What has been honored, in lieu of a prolific career, is his exceptional skill and quality of work. See more at http://www.architectureweek.com/2009/1014/culture_2-1.html

It is not everyday that you get enjoy Live music outdoors- definitely not from a Pakistani musician. When I first heard about Qawwal Faiz Ali Faiz performing on June 14th, I wanted to attend the show but just before the event, I found out that he will also be performing at Millennium Park (Jay Pritzker Pavilion), as part of the Artists without Borders program.

Today was that day.

The performance was due to start at 6:30 pm but I was late by about half an hour coming from work. As soon as I approached the underground parking garage closer to the venue, I could hear the instrumentals and vocals, loud and clear. Coming out of the parking garage, we were taking how I was expecting the crowd to be on the low-end.

I was wrong.

The pavilion was packed with families enjoying on the grass as well as people in the actual seating area. The closer I got to the front, the more I realized how wrong I was. The audience was not just Pakistanis or people from the subcontinent, but a very balanced group of people, all clapping and enjoying to the rhythm of the music. It wasn’t to long before someone started showering the singers and performers with money. Seeing this, other people as well showered the performers with bills. There were people standing in the aisles, enjoying the music and clapping to the tones and snapping pictures.

For those that don’t know what a Qawwali is; it is folk music usually performed sitting down on the floor. The ensemble includes one or two lead singers along with a few side singers. The rest of the ensemble includes harmonium players, tabla and dholak players and others that act as clappers.

I will post a few pictures soon.

            Young Chinese architects are blessed and cursed with an abundance of work. Many of them have burgeoning portfolios of built projects in their 20s, when young architects in the West are still thoroughly in the apprenticing process. But when I visited China last year, I heard the same refrain: While it’s nice to work, they also want a chance to think.

            When  I visited a class of aspiring architects at Nanjing University, they wanted to talk about Kenneth Frampton and regionalism and debate the merits of starchitecture. They wanted time to ponder China’s role in the world, and how the younger generation could steer the country away from building fast and encourage it to build well. They were idealists, but they knew that their likely fate was a life of long hours, cranking out formulaic designs for warehouses and generic housing.

            Announcing the Ordos Prize, a new architecture competition funded by a Chinese billionaire. It is named for the Inner Mongolian city of Ordos, one of China’s astonishing “mushroom” cities that has grown from a population of zero in 2001 to 1.36 million today. Part of the award includes a commission to build a new building, plus $20,000 in award money.

Though not so grand as the Pritzker Prize, or so thorough in its process as the Aga Khan Award for Architecture  (which operates on a three-year cycle and is meant “to encourage architecture that reflects the pluralism that has always characterised Muslim communities”), the Ordos Prize does seemed design to address the malaise of over-worked and under-theorized young architects. It is not limited to Chinese architects, and the nominating committee is thoroughly international: Ben van Berkel, Stefano Boeri, Liz Diller, Jacques Herzog, Thom Mayne, Pierre de Meuron, Enrique Norten, Kazuyo Sejima, Wang Shu and Robert A. M. Stern, according to a press release.

 “Unlike other major prizes that recognize an architect for a significant project or body of work, The Ordos Prize is the first to honor emerging young talent,” says Rem Koolhaas , who heads The Ordos Prize Jury.

 Meanwhile, it’s worth taking note of the larger fact of Ordos, the city-out-of-nowhere that is cashing in on the fossil fuels trade. It is also the site of the Ordos 100 project (funded by the same billionaire, Cai Jiang), a collection of 100 individually designed villas being curated by Herzog and de Meuron. An international array of architects is involved, and according to Sayre Casey, who has just returned from the site, they are actually being built. So far, a half dozen or more are underway. And the city includes a museum, also under construction, designed by the Beijing-based MAD firm, which I visited last year. MAD is a very interesting, ambitious and innovative young company that always manages to find itself in the headlines.

Australian architect Glenn Murcutt received the American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal this year (the AIA convention was in San Francisco two weeks ago).  He won the Pritzker Prize in 2002.   Here’s a short interview from the May 2009 Architectural Record .  It contains some interesting points of view, including about the role of drawing and image:

“We are taught that creativity is the most important thing in architecture. Well, I don’t believe that. I think that the creative process leads to discovery, and discovery is the most important thing. I’m suggesting that any work of architecture — as opposed to merchandise — has the potential to be discovered, and drawing is the key…

“One of the great problems of our period is that we’ve developed tools that allow rapidity, but rapidity and repetitiveness do not lead to right solutions. Perception gives us right solutions. I know that one can use a computer to discover, but what it produces is form; it can be sculpture, but not necessarily architecture. There’s so much work today that’s different for the sake of difference. It creates loud architecture that screams at you…

“I see myself as trying to create an architecture of its place, of its time, of its technology, of its culture.  The principles of architecture are questions. Before starting any project I ask: What’s the geology, what’s the geomorphology, what’s the history, where does the wind come from, where does the sun come from, what are the shadow patterns, what’s the drainage system, what’s the flora? I’m just working in my own milieu in a way that’s appropriate. It’s an attitude, and I take it as a total responsibility…

“I worked in my father’s joinery shop from the age of 11, and he drilled into me the idea of doing even the smallest thing extraordinarily well. But crafting is only the means by which architecture is made; it’s not architecture. Architecture is space, light, function, walls that open and close, vents that open. In my country, it’s about handling heavy rainfalls. Architecture is not merchandise, and it’s not just an object in itself. Like a violin, it’s an instrument that’s part of an orchestra or quartet. Like a yacht, you should be able to modify and manipulate its form and skin according to seasonal conditions…

“[Student] work work has to speak about place, technology, climate, structure, materials. They must work honestly, with heart and mind, rather than structuring what is a visual delight alone. Their work has to have roots. I think what we admire most about architecture of all periods is rootedness, authenticity. We recognize authenticity, and we recognize the five-minute flash. The authentic lives on; the flash quickly dies.”

Renzo Piano’s much anticipated addition to the Chicago’s Art Institute open’s this weekend. Reviews are mostly good.  See the review by the New York Times’ architecture critic Nicholas Ourousoff.   You will be designing a museum addition this fall in 2nd year studio, and you will be going to Chicago next spring, so start looking out for both subjects in your wanderings this summer.