CHORA'S Coming....
Architecture and its kindergarten, Architectural Education, cannot continue in stasis: systematically ignoring the tectonic shifts in culture, the nature of economy, contemporary politics, or indeed existing and projected counter-cultures.
Architectural Education in the UK today is, in essence, predicated upon a model that emerged from the 1958 Oxford Conference. 1958!!! That's two years after my birth and I am now sixty. Trust me - much has changed.
If we take just one example: the exponential growth and spread of technology that facilitates communication, we might reflect that in 1958 we had the telegram, the telephone (for the privileged few) and the letter. Television had only two channels and went dead at 11.00pm. Today we have, e-mail, social media, mobile phones, satellite communication all of which, allow us pretty much to 'to be' nowhere in particular.
Similarly, we can travel to the other side of the world by air in 24 hours. Mogens Prip-Bus, Utzon's Danish assistant on the Opera House projects, wrote of the sea voyage he made with his family Sydney in 1962/1963 that was of four weeks duration.
Today so much more is accessible yet in counterpoint, Architectural Education is becoming increasingly inaccessible, particularly if you are unwilling to enter-into a minimum of £50,000 of indebtedness or, are unfortunate enough to fall within the numerous categories of under-representation in UK Higher Education.
The Practice of Architecture sits in similar stasis; largely dominated by white middle-class men that propagate the status-quo within models of Practice structure that would have been recognisable at the turn of the twentieth century. Such structures tend to be insular, introverted, competitive, rely on long-hours culture, often aligned to a sense of machismo.
Architectural Education in the UK today is, in essence, predicated upon a model that emerged from the 1958 Oxford Conference. 1958!!! That's two years after my birth and I am now sixty. Trust me - much has changed.
If we take just one example: the exponential growth and spread of technology that facilitates communication, we might reflect that in 1958 we had the telegram, the telephone (for the privileged few) and the letter. Television had only two channels and went dead at 11.00pm. Today we have, e-mail, social media, mobile phones, satellite communication all of which, allow us pretty much to 'to be' nowhere in particular.
Similarly, we can travel to the other side of the world by air in 24 hours. Mogens Prip-Bus, Utzon's Danish assistant on the Opera House projects, wrote of the sea voyage he made with his family Sydney in 1962/1963 that was of four weeks duration.
Today so much more is accessible yet in counterpoint, Architectural Education is becoming increasingly inaccessible, particularly if you are unwilling to enter-into a minimum of £50,000 of indebtedness or, are unfortunate enough to fall within the numerous categories of under-representation in UK Higher Education.
The Practice of Architecture sits in similar stasis; largely dominated by white middle-class men that propagate the status-quo within models of Practice structure that would have been recognisable at the turn of the twentieth century. Such structures tend to be insular, introverted, competitive, rely on long-hours culture, often aligned to a sense of machismo.
However, new paradigms of Practice are beginning to emerge, such as Snøhetta: an
International Design Studio delivering projects in Architecture, Interiors, Landscape and Branding, yet designed as a permeable organisation, apparently enthusiastic to collaborate with external agencies.
International Design Studio delivering projects in Architecture, Interiors, Landscape and Branding, yet designed as a permeable organisation, apparently enthusiastic to collaborate with external agencies.
In parallel, innovative models of Architectural Education are emerging such as the 'Free School of Architecture' (www.freeschoolofarchitecture.org), that charges no tuition fees, and at last, the RIBA are moving towards an 'Apprentice Architect' pathway into the profession, that should widen participation and erode extant demographics.
There is some hope.
In our contemporary, fluid, horizontal, world we may speculate that these permeable structures and more responsive to our zeitgeist as they are paradigms of accessibility.
Plato wrote of a fascinating concept in Timaeus and Critias: CHORA. The etymology of the word is: 'a place in which dance is revealed'. Plato extended the concept towards a: 'receptacle of becoming', a place where the as yet unimagined is revealed.
This CHORA is such a place. A supportive and empathetic space, within which the nature of Architectural Education and Practice in the twenty-first century are questioned, debated and re-imagined. A place of collaboration, conjunction, experiment and sometimes of risk. A place where accepted orthodoxies are challenged and new ways revealed.
CHORA's coming.
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