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ROOTS OF AND ROUTES TO LEARNING ARCHITECTURE
In an intricately detailed article, Narendre Dengle expounds on the importance of pedagogy working in tandem with the physical aspects of construction, both informing and drawing from each other to create an innately contextual response to building that is in a state of constant evolution.
By Narendra Dengle
We are not concerned if the phenomenal world is true or false, real or unreal, transient or transcendental, but rather our approach to studying it; what are our tools and criteria of analyses and evaluation; and what value system do we attach to it.
Indian Architect & Builder - March 2014
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he last six issues of the IA&B have carried essays that together would mean quite a lot if one has to take the essence of it seriously. Many focused ideas, pedagogical, methodological, as well as implementable have been discussed that address the existing system within and outside the country, idealistically and pragmatically. It would be most important to have a response of the CoA, who has been entrusted with the task of architectural education in the country. Late Achyut Kanvinde was emphatic in stressing the importance of separating the governance of education from that of the profession. This point has been elaborated in the previous essays and a compromised path suggested by creating ‘an arm of the CoA’ that is independent of interference and control from professionals. ‘Schools without Walls’ on the lines of Ivan Illich’s 'Deschooling Society' has been discussed with passion. Need for research and constantly evolving set-up have been emphasised on. I would like to build further upon these suggestions and this essay may be read in the spirit of continuation. I am also hoping that the current scenario is not static and as the academia and practising community we would also like to consider looking beyond it.
syllabi, as well as, colleges are the means and not the end. Many graduate architects turned to other disciplines and became writers-historians-critics, graphic designers, interior designers, activists, musicians, politicians, teachers, administrators, started NGOs, and so forth; on the other hand if one looks at the practice of, for instance, Kanvinde Rai & Chaudhuri, which is one of the most renowned of the oldest practices to provide comprehensive professional consultancy along with quality architecture (one may also find other equally relevant practices), one finds that most of those who either trained or worked there took the plunge and set up private practices or worked in professional architectural offices. Many of them also remained associated with academics 1. What does this suggest – that the learning in colleges is inadequate, or only useful in forming the base in drawing and visualising, or the college education was entirely redundant, or apprenticeship is only an inevitable second step before the practice? It also would be useful to know on the value-base of the practices of people, who never went to colleges, and what exactly is the nature of their contribution to architecture- socially, environmentally, aesthetically.
Charles Correa has said, “We do not know if architecture can be taught but we certainly know that it can be learned”. If this is to be decoded into an implementable direction then what it means is that there is no one way to teach or learn architecture. Neither is there one mode, college, or country, where it can be learnt the most convincing way. So, what is ‘learning architecture’? Curricula,
The process of learning must be closest to the person who intends to learn. It is to him/her whom the perceiving/ learning happens. It is about him/herself and about the world, both of which he/she is supposed to observe-study and work for. It is said that ‘the act of observation alters the observer and the observed.’ 2 Observation is at the core of learning, since it has transformative