Spiller, Neil and Nic Clear, ed. Educating Architects: How Tomorrow’s Practitioners Will Learn Today. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014.

New to the library this week is Educating Architects, a collection of articles about the current challenges, practices, and needs of those who teach in Schools of Architecture.

I wanted to share two of the articles I found engaging. The first is Michael Sorkin’s article, “250 Things an Architect Should Know” (pgs. 32-39).  It is a short article- quite literally a diverse itemized list. He includes knowledge rooted in the practical, historical, cross-dicplinary fields, philosophical/theoretical/academic, and finally experience,  whether gained as a practicing architect (or student) or from life itself.

The second article is by Mark Morris and entitled “School of Thought” (pgs. 166-176).  I was drawn to the article initially by his reference to the School of Architecture at UT and the school’s dean Harwell Hamilton Harris. Morris examines the recent evolution of architecture schools from the 1950s to the present. He explores the issue of  the “absence of uniqueness” present in many schools today and considers the effect of MOOCs on teaching and the importance of studios (pgs. 173-175).