Changing Architectural Education

Architectural education is under pressure to change to meet the demands of an evolving construction industry and to cater to the increasingly varied career destinations of graduates. Influential reports and studies within the construction industry over the last decade all point to the need for more collaboration within, and across, the construction professions and for better understanding and communication between the professions and their clients, building users and society. There is a growing call that architects and other construction professionals further develop the soft skills relevant to the human dimension of professional practice. How should architectural education respond to these professional challenges? How can students be better prepared for professional practice? These questions are the focus of this book, which brings together contributions from a wide range of authors, from both the UK and USA, working in the fields of architectural education, architectural practice and educational research. These authors are at the leading edge of educational change and describe how they, and their schools of architecture, have been responding to the professional challenges. A wide range of responses are described and discussed. There are papers on innovation in design studio projects, on ways of developing communication and teamworking skills in students, and on ways of developing communication and teamworking skills in students, and on ways of strengthening design thinking. There are also papers on how to develop student self responsibility in learning, on how to embed change at the school level, and on how to prepare practitioners to teach in the design studio. The book covers such topics as: 1. Educational responses to changes in society and the construction industry. 2. Ways of helping students acquire the communication and teamworking skills required for professional practice. 3. Developing and strengthening the integrative and analytical aspects of design thinking. 4. Laying a better foundation for independent and lifelong learning. 5. Making the review a more effective vehicle for learning. 6. Cultivating a more collaborative learning climate. 7. Supporting design studio change across a whole school of architecture. 8. Preparing tutors to teach in the design studio.