With this issue of New Design Ideas, I wish to initiate a new tradition of gathering important opinions on a timely topic. Some readers may be aware that a revolution is brewing around the world, questioning the way we teach architecture. It might not be long before radical re-structuring of our educational system will need to be implemented by common consent. More and more educators and practitioners are getting involved in this debate (Brady, 2017; Budds & Zellner, 2016; Griffiths, 2019; Salingaros, 2019; Salingaros et al., 2019). I invited some world authorities to write an opinion piece on the future of architectural education for the US online magazine Arch News Now (Dalrymple, 2019) [Seven essays are already published, and reprinted by Architexturez (Patterns Digital Library, 2019)].
As this movement is growing rapidly, I would also like to publish a complementary series of invited essays here. I therefore invited authors with whose work I am familiar to contribute their thoughts on this crucial topic. As opinion pieces, these short contributions did not go through the normal external refereeing process. Nevertheless, I personally curated these essays and invariably suggested edits before accepting them for publication. Education reform is necessary to train a new generation of young architects who will re-shape the built environment to a more human scale. We need solutions to both the looming sustainability crisis, and the dehumanization of global society. The ultimate goal of this enterprise is to drastically change the way we design and build, and I hope that New Design Ideas can lead the world in this monumental task.
Original Articles
Jiang, Bin. "Alexander’s wholeness as the scientific foundation of sustainable urban design and planning." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 81-98.
Terry, Francis and Nir Buras. "Building for the future: Seeing building materials in terms of weathering and longevity." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 99-112.
Keswani, Kiran. "Urban design studio pedagogy: Thinking about informality." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 113-123.
Opinion
Chandavarkar, Prem. "A Pedagogy-Centred Curriculum." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 124-129.
Curl, James Stevens. "Suggested reforms of architectural education." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 130-134.
Dengle, Narendra. "For relevance and beauty in architecture." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 135-138.
Donnola, Silvina. "Calling for attention." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 139-140.
Downton, Paul. "Awesome architecture versus Biophilia in an age of distraction." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 141-144.
Ganju, MN Ashish. "Our spiritual universe exists within the self. So, how do we use it to shape our world?" New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 145-147.
Khan, Smita, and Habeeb Khan. "Nemesis in the genesis: Reforming architectural education in India." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 148-153.
Mehaffy, Michael W. "Architectural education: Still training tailors for the empire’s new clothes." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 154-158.
Moein, Saman. "What was taught and what was not learned." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 159-163.
Balagtas, Catherine Ryan. "Actions for elevating the experience of architecture: A design challenge of the 21st century." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 164-168.
Rybczynski, Witold. "A very brief note on architectural reality." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 168-170.
Shah, Kirtee. "Architecture practice and architecture education in India need a major rethink." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019): 171-174.