Architecture education in the United States is changing. Students are increasingly getting out of the classroom and interacting with developers and builders—an ever-more-valuable skill for practicing architects.
The luckiest students are perhaps those at Cornell University, where the developer of an eco-friendly resort in the South Pacific is sponsoring a studio architecture course this semester. Designers for the firm have scheduled to hold a charrette, a term to describe an intensive design collaboration, on campus with students this month, and in March, the entire class of 15 students is slated to go on a two-week field trip to Fiji.
While few students are fortunate enough to spend a week or two in Fiji as part of their coursework, “contractors, architects and owners are talking to each other in new ways,” said Daniel Friedman, dean of architecture and urban planning at the University of Washington in Seattle. “We need to prepare students to enter this arena.”
In the name of better preparation, more subjects are also being added to architecture curriculums.
Sustainable design, or the design of buildings that reduce carbon emissions, is becoming popular. Another topic that’s all the rage is “universal design”—making buildings friendly to people of all ages and abilities, including the aging baby-boomer population.
Continuing education and online learning are also growing in importance in architecture education. Practicing architects, who must take courses to maintain certification, find increasingly that the offerings are on the Internet.
Red Vector, the largest provider of online courses for design and building professionals, had 90,000 users last year, up from 40,000 four years ago.
Advances in computers and software have driven many of the changes seen in the past decade in the industry. Architects no longer spend the bulk of their time alone in offices drawing up extensive two-dimensional plans. Instead, design is done on computers with software that generates three-dimensional models.
“The ability to design buildings three-dimensionally and have realistic three-dimensional models has had a big consequence on the way architects think about designing buildings and how it is taught,” said Michael Liu, principal of the Architectural Team, a Boston-area firm. “You no longer draft a building; you build a three-dimensional model.”
This shift has allowed builders and engineers, as well as developers and project owners, to get involved in the design process sooner.
“The schematic design phase is no longer the exclusive province of the architect,” said Friedman.
This blurring of the lines in the development process heightens the importance of teaching students how to work with the other key players.
“There is a lot of discussion now on possibilities of how education is going to prepare students for the practice and the changes that are happening in practice,” said Catherine Roussel, director of education for the American Institute of Architects.
One possibility is internships or externships. The New Jersey Institute of Technology places its students in summer positions in offices of community development agencies and affordable housing programs across New York state.
Work-study programs, in which students spend full semesters on the job, are also a growing trend.
“We have well established that internships increase the readiness of graduates,” Friedman said.
The blending of the professions is also being institutionalized in some universities, where joint degrees are offered in architecture and other fields, including construction management and business.
Kevin Pratt, an assistant professor at Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning, said the addition of offerings in architecture schools that introduce students to other facets of development is a welcome change.
“When I was in school, you had one course, which basically taught you how to avoid getting sued,” Pratt said.