The Future of Architecture Education – Manoj Mathur

Indian Institute of Architects, Northern Chapter, organised an interactive conference at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi on Sept 28 and Sept 29, 2012. The focus of this conference was on Ideologies, Methodologies and Future perceptions for evolving a method to deal with the changing market dynamics of the Global Construction Industry. The third session of the conference focused on ‘The Future of Architectural Practice and Architectural Education In India’. The Conference Base Paper can be downloaded by clicking here.

Here, in this post, we share the presentation by Prof. Manoj Mathur, HoD, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. The presentation stressed upon the current methodologies in teaching, the problem areas and solutions to some of them.  Following are some excerpts from the presentation, which are open for comments from the readers. Some of the quotes are the following:

• Current methods (in Architecture Education) will not get us there.
• Architecture has diversified and grown beyond just designing and planning.  It is no longer one small part of the building industry but exerts its influence at managerial, execution and monitoring levels. Architects can make a better contribution than Engineers and   Managers. 
• Teachers themselves have not learned what to teach their students, never seen a site after college but teaching building construction. Degree and Council registration only lead the horse up to water, doesn’t make him drink.
• Are there new roles that Architects are increasingly being called upon to play in the mainstream, which they are not being trained for presently and which would improve substantially through programmed academic intervention?
• Do we need MORE Schools or LARGER Schools or both? How do we get the Teachers to run these schools?

The original presentation can be DOWNLOADED BY CLICKING HERE.