Modes of Travel - (Un)Learning Education

Modes of Travel - (Un)Learning Education

Architecture Fringe 2021
10 June 2021
Online

with Matthaios Lymperopoulos for the Architecture Fringe, and Kathy Li of Missing in Architecture

Provocateurs: Alisha Morenike Fisher, Andrew Clancy, Annelys de Vet, Harriet Harriss, Piers Taylor, Neal Shasore, Neil Pinder, Missing in Architecture, & architecture student societies from the Universities of Dundee, Edinburgh, Robert Gordon, Strathclyde, and Glasgow School of Art

There are moments in our shared history which initiate and demand profound change. The year 2020 marked an intersection of the climate emergency, racialised capitalist economy, and continuing movement against sexual abuse and harassment all within the context of an ever-expanding global pandemic. The clear, long overdue change required in how we collectively organise our societies, treat people, and live upon the Earth has continued to be signposted by grassroots movements of people across the world.

Architecture, and the education and training within it, has everything to do with the world around us. Looking ahead to look back, if we consider and compare the architectural education of 2019/20 with that of 2021/22 we would hope to see a serious shift in how we teach and learn, with recognition that something happened in 2020, that things changed.

In this context, as part of the Architecture Fringe 2021 core programme, we examined contemporary architectural education with contributions from educators in Scotland, London, Bristol, Amsterdam, and New York.

The explorations and discussions initially took place via an online symposium. Year 1 of architectural education is a critical one and is often under appreciated within academic structures. As a point of entry and period of study there is much to explore as new arrivals begin to engage with the subject and the discipline.

Drawing on experience, expertise and inspiration from around the world, we explored Year 1 architectural education through three sequential moments - Arrival, Participation, & Departure.

The explorations and further commissioned work will form a new publication by the Architecture Fringe due in early 2022.

Watch the full online event via the Architecture Fringe YouTube channel here.

Image: Modes of Travel - (Un)Learning Education artwork by Dhamintha Wickremasinghe