Teaching and Experimenting with Architectural Design

194 EAAE no 35 Teaching and Experimenting with Architectural Design: Advances in Technology and Changes in Pedagogy

Johannes Käferstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Let us begin our discussion.

Dimitris Papalexopoulos, Athens, Greece
It is a huge question and I am not going to attempt to answer it now. I just wanted to
say that all the interventions were really excellent. And it seems, that finally, after a
number of years, the Mackintosh School of Architecture and your surprises have come
to join us. My question is almost a rhetorical one, but it could perhaps be answered
in one or two words: do we intend to move towards a critical position at this time,
even concerning our own work? How do you judge, in two words, your own work? Is
everything OK? Are there any question marks concerning your own approach (not the
surrounding reactions, money, etc. The question is how do we judge our own work,
how do we judge our own teaching of work?

Robert Mantho, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Do you want me to answer that? Should I try?

Dimitris Papalexopoulos, Athens, Greece
Yes, in two words.

Robert Mantho, Glasgow, United Kingdom
In two words: very carefully.

Rivka Oxman, Haifa, Israel
I would answer also that you have to be very committed. You have to be dedicated
and believe in what you do. It is like an experiment: it may be successful or it may
be unsuccessful, but whatever findings you come up with will have value. But like
anything else, you have to be committed and believe in what you do, but leave others
to do as well. I said two words, so that is it.

Robert Mantho, Glasgow, United Kingdom
There is a joke in my family that we never make any decisions that are not spirally
achieved. I do not know the answer to your question, and if knew I would not be
here, I would be doing something else. My point is that we are on a journey, and
I see our journey as just as important as the students’ journey. They give us stuff,
we give them stuff; the point is the discussion, the kind of dialogue that happens
in the studio, which is sometimes accidental and sometimes very deliberate. We are
going to go back and we are going to redesign this programme and we are going to
find things that did not work this time that we can make work better next time, and
we are going to find things that did work this time but will not work next time. In a
sense, I think the whole teaching thing is involved with unknowing. If it was about
knowing, it would not really be teaching, it would be some other knowledge transfer
method that I do not understand. I do not know if that is much of an answer, but it
is the best one I can give today. I think the very notion of how you assess needs to
evolve and change.