Architecture and Education

The strength of the Irish economy and the building industry in particular in the last decade has created significant changes in the architectural profession. Over the past five years more than half of all new members have qualified outside the state.

In the same period more Irish nationals have graduated in UK universities than in either of the existing schools at UCD and DIT. When architects working in Ireland who have not yet joined the RIAI are added to the list it becomes apparent that the Irish profession is relying heavily on professionals educated outside Ireland.

This has led to a number of Irish higher education institutions examining the possibility of starting new courses in architecture.

In parallel with these developments architectural education and its relationship to the professional bodies is rapidly changing across Europe. The EU Bologna Agreement aims to achieve a commonality of levels of learning across subject areas in education with a 3 to 4 year first degree followed by a 1 to 2 year master’s degree.

In addition the importance of research ratings in university funding may result in schools of architecture focusing on appointing faculty members with strong research credentials rather than those from practice.

These changes raise a number of fundamental questions for the RIAI:

• How should architecture as a discipline, as well as a profession be defined?
• How should the body of knowledge that governs architecture be defined and the quality of learning be assessed?
• How does architectural education fit within the wider disciplines of the built environment – urban planning, conservation, landscape, technology and interior architecture.

Early in 2005 the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the RIAI jointly commissioned John Worthington a former Director of DEGW, an architect and educationalist with considerable international experience to prepare a position paper to be used as an agenda for discussion between the higher education institutions, the RIAI and HEA.

An architectural education forum at which his position paper entitled “A Future for Architectural Education in Ireland” was delivered and a discussion was held in Dublin on 23rd June.

The paper set out the following topics:

• The changing nature of architectural education and the professions across Europe
• The potential demand for architectural services and their diversification
• The wide range and types of courses and progression routes that might be relevant in the future
• Criteria for assessing applications for new courses from the point of view of the national interest and the perspective of the profession.

The opportunities outlined at the forum which was attended by representatives of a large number of higher education institutions, are exciting. Among the issues raised were:

• Whether Ireland should aim to offer a wider range of courses not all leading to standard career in the architectural profession
• Whether there is an opportunity to expand courses to provide more openings for Irish applicants and attract more European and overseas students
• Whether there is a potential for more courses to offer greater diversity of choice

The paper placed the future of architectural education in the wider context of how building procurement is changing; the way that society perceives the professions; and the pressures on higher education as student numbers expand.

It emphasised that an architectural education fosters creativity and the ability to approach problems holistically, attributes how much sought after by others, as innovation is seen to be the way to add value to products, particularly in the knowledge economy.

The architectural profession in Ireland is now at a point where it can expand its boundaries to use its unique skills of three dimensional thinking and synthesis to encompass such areas as planning, urban design, space planning, interior architecture, briefing and process management or pursue a definition of the architect’s role.

In Sweden the Institute of Architects has merged with the other disciplines of planning, landscape and interiors to make one institute with specialisms within. The broadening of the boundaries of professional skills of the architect will have ramifications for the way architectural education might be structured.

In Sweden and the Netherlands it is already possible to specialise in urbanism or technology and finish with the recognition of being trained as an architect with specific expertise. In Ireland where the projection for growth of our housing stock will have a profound effect on the form of our cities and towns there is a real need for more architects who have special expertise in planning and urban design and for an education system which encourages this.

The paper points out that architectural education, especially at first degree level provides a mixture of analytical, integrative, organisation and communicative skills that provide sound foundations for a variety of career openings.

The architect’s education is unique in that it encompasses a variety of disciplines and spans both the arts and science. Its breadth is both its strength and its weakness, in that it does not have an easily identified body of research it can call its own, and it straddles across modes of thinking.

The architectural profession and its education system are at a point of reappraisal. With the recent growth of our economy there are more options available than were previously considered possible.

Within the EU the aim of unified standards and common awards to allow for freedom of movement of skills and expertise between countries as exemplified in the Bologna agreement, presents a wide range of alternatives as to how education can be delivered: full or part time, arts or technology focussed, theoretically or practically orientated.

The challenge is for the profession to broaden its perspective of the range of roles, which architects might be concerned with, and in reciprocation for our educational institutions to continue to innovate in the provision of practice based awards which meet the highest academic criteria.