|
|
  |
The AAI was founded in 1896 'to promote and afford facilities for the study of architecture and the allied sciences and arts, and to provide a medium of friendly communication between members and others interested in the progress of architecture'. It sponsors a public lecture series and annual awards. |
|
The Bartlett
In a published interview from the Bartlett Book of Ideas we described one student�s project as the �most satisfyingly calculated misrepresentation of our intentions� *. I have been asked to provide a gloss on this comment in relation to the role of the architecture tutor. Unit 17 is slightly unusual in the context of the unit system. We do not begin with a clearly articulated theoretical position. Many highly successful units operate by coaching students to do sophisticated workings of the tutors� own idiom. We try to avoid any sense that the teacher is directing the student to work within a given formal or theoretical system. Our task is to establish a culture within the unit where students ideas can develop around broad areas of shared interest. The unit, working in the studio, could be compared to an ecosystem where ideas are developing in a culture of co-operation and competition. The tutors prepare the environment by suggesting certain themes which continue and change from year to year. The engine of change is the student operating as a designer while reading the work of colleagues in the unit. The tutors act as editors, selecting particularly promising directions to interpret and carry forward. In a positive way, change or variation occurs precisely to the extent that students choose to misrepresent our ideas. In the context of a system where loose sets of ideas are edging towards change in uncertain directions, it is necessary for the tutors to be precise about the discipline of design. Design is making things consciously. Certain objects, including buildings, possess a haunting, unsayable quality and they fully command their own space without needing explanation. Call this quality �love at first sight�. We believe that this can be achieved by design and that it is possible to tutor students in the techniques of design. This is the ability to create something extraordinary without recourse to virtuosity. We hope that, within this environment, students will gain the confidence to develop independent ideas in a critical culture. The tutors teach by encouraging and editing themes and by talking precisely about design. I am a practising architect, and teaching in the didactic sense is not my primary vocation. My motive for teaching is to discover something I don�t know. Often, ideas will emerge around the margins of my practice which could not possibly be explored in the professional environment. It is possible to introduce them as themes into the unit and watch them develop, digress or wither over time. Sometimes, to my great satisfaction, they can be recovered a couple of years downstream and reintroduced into the office in the context of professional projects. This discourse between the professional world, bound by contingency, and the unit studio pushing towards experimentation, is one reason why an architect might teach. Niall McLaughlin Yeoryia Manolopolou, Niall McLaughlin and Prof. Phil Tabor run Unit 17 at the Bartlett School of Architecture. * Phil Tabor: Buildings are Aliens. Bartlett Book of Ideas. |
|
Events Awards Archives Links Journal - Building material Discussion Committee Membership |
|
Architectural Association of Ireland
|
