how lifelong learning is the new theory
conjuring a skill development framework for art, planning, design, and engineering
If you trace the history of architectural learning, it begins as an apprenticeship with a master builder or craftsperson. Knowledge about the profession was gained through experience in the field. Formal education introduced the library. To make up for the practical experience, you get a grand tour. From these traditions, we have architectural learning, a sum of theory, travel, and practice. I compressed a broad time in history here, but this was common knowledge even until recently, before social media. Learning about architecture was limited to the library or the tourist guidebook. Publishing work, too, was difficult. The Internet changes all of that by making architecture an accessible discourse.
🖋️ art. Architectural theory builds the art of architecture. Learning from the works of other architects is possible only by tracing the thought processes to generate the spatial solution in review. Books were few, travel expensive, and internships stressful. Democratic publishing has made non-referential architecture possible. There are now datasets of information which can inspire generative AI to create ideation frameworks for many other points of view. The masterwork is no longer relevant since it, too, is striving for attention in a brand-new technological information landscape. If appropriately directed, we also have an audience that interacts with our work and can aid disciplinary learning.
🗺️ planning. An architectural project is a sum of the four disciplines of art, planning, design, and engineering, which requires a combination of mapping, coding, drawing, and writing skills to unpack. These skills, learned from an established practice, are built upon when personal practice emerges. You know all of that from someone else and their resources. With the open internet, almost any form of information can be found freely, rented, or purchased; this significantly changes the role practices play in teaching and, therefore, creates a learning environment. The architectural practice is not of any particular utilitarian value to another, unlike in the past. The nature of architectural labour, too, has changed as a result.
✏️ design. After inspiration and resources, we have tools. Getting the drawing right was a tick all architects strived for. Many digital tools have given way to a new set of obsessions. Technologies within them, such as CAD or BIM, have disrupted drawing production skills traditionally imparted from a master to an apprentice. There is then the case of actual devices further complicating data gathering or processing of information to get the job done. A combination of devices and tools makes knowledge creation a personalised pursuit compared to when there were only paper and hand-held tools. The more efficient you are with an ecosystem assembled to improve your productivity. Collaboration is the only future if you lack the skills in a medium.
⌨️ engineering. Within disciplines and skills, I have tried to define the limits of what architecture is. Art, planning, design, and engineering are types of problem-solving. How much of each you implement determines how your intervention will turn out. Mapping, coding, drawing, or writing skills define the architecture discussed. The knowledge base of an experienced practitioner no longer has the same value since Internet services replace them. The knowledge that creates theory for collective practices is now a private story narrated. Like other creative professions that aren’t dependent on references or legacies to carry forward, from a niche discourse, architecture as a discipline is learned with publicly available material and without encumbrances of expectations.
Several AR/VR scanning mobile applications make tracing a plan for a novice’s home or living space effortless. Overlay it with material research from Pinterest, and it is easy to redecorate without professional assistance. Combining almost free services makes a previously paid consultation task replicable without significant costs. While replacing the professional, technology has redefined its learning, too. Unlike other disciplines, each skill in architecture has its set of digital tools to master; hence, the imagination of architectural making has changed, too. In addition to domain expertise, the knowledge of task-specific applications guides definitions of what an architect is in today’s field.
Architectural services, as a set of building drawings drawn in four scales, do not adequately define knowledge limits. Hence, there is an urgency to implement a skill development framework for a lifetime of study. The body of architectural knowledge needs definition. My model is a hypothesis, a working graph of interconnected ideas. The pace of change in technology and tools would hopefully stabilise to direct how information flows develop. Art, planning, design, and engineering are modes of thinking I have associated skills of drawing, mapping, writing and coding. They are not hard-locked but a fuzzy set of malleable associations. To prove the model works is to try to test it with data, for now though this is the start.
