Re-casting terra nullius design-blindness: better teaching of indigenous knowledge and protocols in Australian architecture education

This paper reviews the current status and focus of Australian Architecture programs with respect to Indigenous Knowledge and the extent to which these tertiary programs currently address reconciliation and respect to Indigenous Australians in relation to their professional institutions and accreditation policies. The paper draws upon the findings of a recently completed investigation of current teaching: Re-Casting terra nullius blindness: Empowering Indigenous Protocols and Knowledge in Australian University Built Environment Education. Three data sets from this investigation are analysed: a desktop survey of Australian Built Environment curricula; workshops with tertiary providers and students, professional practitioners and representatives of three Built Environment professional institutes; and an online survey of Australian Built Environment students (of which their discipline could be isolated) ascertaining what is currently being taught and learned and what changes would be feasible within the constraints of courses from their perspective. Detailed descriptions are also provided of pedagogic improvements informed by the project findings. The findings suggest minimal current exposure of Architecture students to Indigenous Knowledge content beyond voluntary engagement in self-chosen thesis projects and elective (including studio) subjects led by passionate but largely unsupported teachers championing Indigenous issues; a paucity of teaching echoed by practitioners and accreditors who acknowledge lack of expertise in this area across the profession. This paper discusses ways in which Indigenous Knowledge might be better acknowledged, respected and introduced to Australian Architecture students’ education. Also discussed are teaching strategies with global relevance.

Hay critica de arquitectura en la red?

 Thanks to the powerful internet, voices that speak about architecture increase every day. This super-populated architectural Speaker’s Corner, is so noisy that it’s even difficult to listen what each speaker is saying. The possibility of saying has turned up to be more important than the relevance of what is actually said. It´s no longer important who says each thing. Our hope is that among all this shouting and screaming we’ll be able to extract something intelligible and able to construct a discourse for architecture. Is this the new format of architectural critic? Transparency is the fundamental value that rules over information transmission in the new digital universe. Transparency that intends to minimise all negativity. By definition it’s positive, operational, flat and sameness. It offers undoubtable advantages in terms of speed, accessibility and amount of information. However, theoretical knowledge must, also by definition, include negativity. And negativity slowens, blocks and limits. The goal of theoretical critic is to segregate, separate and differentiate. It searches a certain truth that is neither transparent nor positive. It must also operate and define what is false. Simple accumulation of information and communication doesn't search or achieve a true conclusion. This paper outlines a taxonomy of the different voices speaking about architecture in the internet. Even though these architectural nano-discourses declare explicitly that they don’t want to replace traditional critic, the role they play particularly in architecture education, is very similar. And their unequivocal search for transparency based on freedom of speech and information, pulls them away from the capacities of traditional critic, of course in terms of format, but also for reason of much deeper importance.

Introduction: the drawing bazaar

Introduction to the research book explaining the reasons behind the need of this publication in the context of architectural education, highlighting the double value of drawing for architects: instrumental as a fundamental tool that qualifies the design process; and autonomous, contemplating the drawing of the architect as a final product in itself beyond the mere illustration and documentation of the project of architecture.

Transitional issues of induction into design education for international undergraduate students : a case study analysis of architecture

The overarching aim of this paper is to present and discuss a collaborative undertaking between the School of Architecture and Building and the Academic Skills Unit at Deakin University, Australia in a programme called The Integrated Support Programme for Architecture. It does this in the following ways. It provides a justification for the setting up of an integrated programme for international architecture students. It describes the programme that was set up and outlines the reasons for collaboration between an academic School and an Academic Skills support services unit to prepare students both nationally and internationally as graduates of architecture. It then reports on a study undertaken to evaluate the programme in terms of student response and perception. Following this, it highlights directions for effective and strategic transition of past and present learning for international students. Using a case study analysis, the thrust of this paper is to advance knowledge and understanding of the pertinent issues related to international students either commencing or articulating into the professional course of architecture. It is envisaged that in this discussion matters may be raised for a strategic and effective transition of generic and internationalised learning for international students.

Integrating the conceptual and practice worlds : a case study from Architecture

A compelling challenge for tertiary educators is to respond meaningfully to pressures to provide curricula that translate readily into realworld professional experience. To explore the synergies of an integration of the conceptual and practice worlds, this paper draws on a program, which the author evaluated, that was part of a Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development funded project for students of architecture and construction. The aspect discussed here, Composing Architecture—The Music Room, involved 74 second year students at Deakin University in semester 2, 2001. The case study is used as an illustration of curriculum design, including assessment, to explore how it met the aims of creating learning experiences that were purposeful, rich in their complexity, and mirrored the demands of the profession in a supportive environment that fostered development. One of the major aims was to model professional practice within the academy—in a sense, to enter into a dialogue between the academy and the profession—with the quality of that dialogue being determined by the accuracy or authenticity of the modelling. With this focus, having articulated and discussed the stated educational challenge that this project was intended to meet, the paper tests this against the attributes of authenticity in the environment of education as delineated by Martin-Kniep (2000) and, in so doing, questions some of her claims. Although some theorists (eg, Petraglia, 1998) contend that to prescribe what counts for authenticity is impossible, it is hoped that some insights into linking the academy and the profession will be gained.

Architect as composer: engaging architecture students with music in the design studio

This paper explores the engagement of architectural students with music in a second year design studio, through a Game and two design projects. A ‘Game’, in the context of this research, is a low-risk learning activity derived from the model established in the CUTSD ‘Reflective Making’ project. The Game required students to complete one of three tasks; to compose and record a piece of electronic music; to research the works of a composer within a digital presentation or to design a prototype musical instrument. This was used as a generative device to inform the design of a Music Room: a space for the contemplation and composition of music. A third stage of the project involved the actual construction of 8 Music Rooms, a high-risk, high-reward activity that requires physical resolution of an established relationship between music and architecture.

This paper will focus on the engagement of architecture students with the Game and related design projects. Student perceptions of the project are used to inform an evaluation of the project as an authentic learning experience and as a valuable component of their architectural education.

A case for a mobile architecture and built environment laboratory

Deakin University and other research and industry partners have recently won a grant for the establishment of a Mobile Architecture and Built Environment Laboratory (MABEL). MABEL provides the first means of integrated, on-site measurement of the key aspects of the built environment (power, sound, light and comfort) using the latest instrument technology. There exists an ongoing need to establish a versatile and comprehensive in-situ testing facility for built internal environments, for the provision of research, education, training and technology diffusion. The ability to make on-site measurements across the environmental spectrum is unique and important. Individual measurements might demonstrate improved lighting performance, reduced power consumption, and improved ventilation or better building acoustics. More importantly, an integrated perspective will address an interaction in terms of energy efficiency and overall occupant comfort. H is recognised that many of the parameters we can measure with existing instrumentation remain unresolved regarding their diagnostic significance on occupant health, comfort and productivity. Also, developed standards for in-situ measurement are at an emerging state, in the delivery of reliable and useful assessment methods. This paper discusses the inception and role of the MABEL facility for building research, learning and teaching.

Developing international perspectives and prospects for architecture students

The architecture community is both challenged and rewarded by a multitude of dynamic phenomena related to professional practice of architecture in the 21 st century, not least of which are globalisation and intemationalisation. The implications for architectural education are profound and confronting, in terms of providing a relevant platform for graduates prepared for a professional climate tempered by the impacts of these phenomena, and for a sustainable professional future. Architecture
students, who pursue the challenge of working either in an office overseas or a local multinational office for professional experience and self-development, enrich the offices and the projects and open up wider opportunities for future prospects for themselves. This paper presents an initial evaluation of two educational initiatives developed and implemented at Deakin University. School of Architecture and Building, which respond to current tertiary education objectives for internationalisation in relation to increasing international experiences for students. developing international perspectives and increasing prospects for their future. The outcome of the paper is to identify common learning experiences of students which correspond to the aims of the programs and to review them against selected education and strategic policies on internationalisation. The paper also discusses how these learning experiences translate into desirable graduate attributes that might help secure the success of the profession in a global arena.

The design studio: fabricating a sense of architecture in drawing

The purpose of this paper is to provide a platform for investigating the relationship between the student and the tutor via the design drawing and in particular the idea that what gives grounds for architecture to embody something is what is imagined is expressed in the design drawing. It is suggested that in architectural education the sense of architecture's fabricated properties find their apparent expression from the convergence of the tutor and student toward these drawings. In an act of perceptual contortion, there is an endeavour to reconcile what they see with what they think the drawing might suggest. Part of this mental reconstruction is based on the expectation that something is in the drawing to see. The drawing is produced based on the supposition that it will be read, generating a particular conditioning of the student's attitude toward the relevance of the drawing. It is engaged as the receptacle of ideas about what architecture is. The result is that sometimes the emphasis on the drawing as something to be consumed implies a permeation of the supposed sensory qualities of architecture imagined by the student designer, the portrayal of which is indubitably a product of the medium. While this might be commonly experienced in studios, it is proposed that this may be perpetuated in architectural education not merely by the act of drawing itself and what the drawing is, but how the student/tutor exchange contributes to the consciousness of what is portrayed.