Education in Architecture - Key to Architecture Profession

 

Kanchan Garg

Professor Cum Dean Academics, RIMT-College of Architecture, Mandi Gobindgarh

 

ABSTRACT:

Now a day, quality of education in any stream is considered as deteriorated, rather to say at every level. Education is skill development of ones in the respective field. Architectural education is whenever discussed, gets connection with profession, as it is ultimately the result of education provided. Efficient working in field either independently or in a corporate office or in partnership depends on the education provided/grasped during graduation period. Many parameters like infrastructure, student aptitude, teaching skills of the faculty etc. become factors to decide education level. Many ranking frameworks are working globally according to the need of community and social development. Currently the issue of quality of education is being discussed globally. Understanding of the course content by the teacher is utmost desired. Teaching should go hand to hand with both the theoretical and practical knowledge. The delivery of the topics should be in easy learning and long time retains way. The drop being felt in quality of education needs different models of teaching. Models of teaching can be used in any type of education, which are not being taught to the teachers of professional courses. Architectural education is one of the courses which needs immediate attention towards quality. We can say, either Architectural profession is reflection of quality of education in architecture or Architectural education is key to architecture Profession.

 

INTRODUCTION:

Education in architecture is different from other fields although the quality parameters remain the same. Different universities are providing education with different curriculum either with grade system or percentage system, which are further taught by a number of teachers with their own methods of teaching. In general, any topic taught by teacher should be of never forgetting for the respective student.

 

Moreover teacher should be crystal clear about the topics with the fundamentals to be taught to the students in spite of stuffed with content of the subject and should be able to create curiosity in the minds of the students to enhance their knowledge at their own in respect to the topic discussed or taught. It comes out with an irreversible concept which leads to long retention of the topic/s. Earlier Gurukuls were the best way to teach and expertise a student (after rigorous testing and bestowed personal) with focused attention on the student [George]. Short span of formal education can clear concepts about the field which indeed will be required for working and finally, with experience great architects can be produced. The fact is that education is base of future profession of architecture. Extra knowledge provided by teacher through his/her experience which cannot be taken from any other source plays an important role for understanding the concepts of the subject both theoretically and practically. Architectural education is base of a practical field profession which needs lot of experienced knowledge vis-a-vis theoretical knowledge. The spaciousness in environment from cradle to grave [Batley] is requirement of all living beings, which in fact is to be created by trained architects graduated from different schools.  Internet is also playing an important role in providing knowledge to large content (both in the authentic and doubtful way). Today, the methods being taught are much with the help of computers/ Internet facilities. Generally all teachers collect data from internet and prepare power point presentations and get ready to deliver the respective subject. Students are also given the assignments with soft copies for which they just copy and paste the material that they are getting from web sites without understanding in detail. Now a days, the budding architects want to learn in the easiest way that they can opt for any of the subject in contrast to the earlier practices of teaching in architecture where complete work was done after spending long times either in studios or in library or with special individual efforts. Today, mostly student is coming only for degree in the colleges irrespective to the knowledge that will be the key for him in the professional field. Teachers and students who are serious towards the profession are doing very well to save the respect of profession in the world whereas others are just doing to earn and meet their personal needs. Unfortunate of this is that very few are in this category of seriousness. Architects offices employ trainees and graduated students. While considering an office with 8-10 employees, the work that is being done in three vertical levels i.e. Group leaders, Assistant Architects and Trainees in descending order. Duties assigned to all the employees are distributed on the basis of their capability and exposure to the field.  Generally the architect of the office assigns duties to the staff as below:

 

In ancient times when there were no software to design buildings, easily countable remarkable buildings were in Indian history worldwide, in comparison to that, today, when we have to deeply think which Indian building is worldwide renowned in contemporary times. The question arises what has happened to the Indian architecture?

 

Table

 

There seems less correlation between profession and academia i.e. changes in education do not reflect needs and aspirations of profession and conversely profession is ignorant of research and advancement in academics [Kanvinde]. Graduates of the field get often confused when exposed to live projects. Today, gap between the two has an outcome of dissatisfaction among the graduates that they feel only approx 20% is being used in practical field of what had been learnt during degree time. Architectural colleges working independently are doing much better with their wholly and solely contribution to architectural education only. Education imparted to the students is to prepare them for growth in profession in spite of treating education as business or any money making profession.

 

METHODOLOGY:

Detailed study of different lesson plans for different subjects led me to the think over the teaching models. Whether all lectures should be delivered through power point presentations only. Continuous process of thinking led me to models of teaching being taught during Bachelor of Education course. Different models of teaching are beneficial for different type of education and for different levels of students. So, the models of teaching being taught in education are required to be taught to teachers in architecture education. Using models of different kind for various subjects will be beneficial for the students to grasp subject easily to implement the same in the field.

 

CONCLUSION/ RECOMMENDATIONS:

Dedication and interest of both learning and teaching are the two sides of a coin. Good teacher can create interest and enthusiasm in a student, vice-versa a student can also increase interest of the teacher. Education is none other than the process of giving and taking and it's the education that makes a profession successful.

 

REFERENCES:

1.       Adhikari, S. 2014. Talent Requirements for Architecture Students. Architecture Update, Economic Research India Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, 8(6) July, 64-65 pp.

2.       Batley, C. (1997). The Prospect for Architectural Education in India. Journal of The Indian Institute of Architects, Sep- Oct, Vol V, Issue 9-10, pp 3-7

3.       Garg, V. (2011). Architecture- Education, Practice and Research. The Journal of The Indian Institute of Architects, The Indian Institute of Architects, Mumbai, 76(12) December, 30-35 pp.

4.       George, V. (1997). Tragedy of Architectural Education in India. Journal of The Indian Institute of Architects, July, Vol V, Issue 62, pp 31-32

5.       Interviewed alumni of college/s

6.       Kanvinde, P. (2010). Architecture Education Scenario. Journal of The Indian Institute of Architects, Maharashtra, Oct, Vol V, Issue IV, pp 101-105

 

 

 

 

Received on 26.05.2017                             Accepted on 21.06.2017        

©A&V Publications all right reserved