The Teacher’s Role in Architectural Education
This is the most important article I have ever written. This article is not just for architecture students but also for Professors in Architecture Colleges and Universities and Architects.
The falling standards of mass education is a contagion that has engulfed Architectural Education in the state. The poor quality of work and professionalism needs no mention. Sometimes this deterioration in quality is accredited to the quality of students but I find this excuse inacceptable because, out of the many responsibilities and duties, one of the essential element in imparting Architectural education is the process of simplification. The teacher has to simplify matters enough for a common man to understand. In a profession which depends upon visual effects it becomes all the more important to simplify verbal and written matter into graphic displays easy enough for the laity.
Architecture is not for Architects; it is for people, and whatever the Architects may think; whatever theories they may have, it is through the senses that people appreciate and it is through the development of these senses that the Architect designs. It is through the senses we feel Architecture.
One does not satisfy ones feeling by expressing one’s own feelings. What is required of Architect is the intellectual process based upon “sympathy”. He must contrive to give people what they will enjoy, not what he would wish them to enjoy. This sympathetic approach is particularly relevant to India where the masses distinguished by their diverse cultural traditional require the Architects ti provide design solution based on indegeneity. This sympathetic habit has to be inculcated among the students by a teacher who himself/herself understands the meaning of sympathy. Students need to be reminded and constantly guided about this kind of an approach to Architecture which would serve the unique requirements of unique people.
From this view point – mass housing is like an anti-biotic for all ailments. Individuality and diversity is lost under the debris of a secular culture and Architecture. The importance of visual and audial effects upon the space must be emphasized.