Reconciling Lectures and Studios

In modern schools of architecture, many students find it curiously difficult to relate their experiences in the lectures to their experiences in the studios. Although they are offered extensive information in the lectures about building technology, human behavior, culture, and so on, surprisingly little of this information actually seems to influence directly the forms they design in the studios. At the heart of the problem, this paper suggests, is a mistaken conception—built deep into the modern curricular structure—about how knowledge is acquired and applied. Alternative models of knowledge offered by Jean Piaget and Bill Hillier are examined, and they are found to explain more satisfactorily how the acquisition of design knowledge can be integrally related to its use. In the final section of this paper, the consequences of these alternative models for design education are discussed, and the outline of an alternative curricular structure is proposed; essentially a case will be made for abandoning lectur...