Architecture Academy - Unit Proposal
Architecture & Personal Journey
Introduction
The world is in a curious moment.
The concept of a profession and working citizen is changing radically. The boisterous 6 year old ‘youtube star’ Ryan Kaji makes $22 million dollars a year reviewing toys online. Teenagers amass millions of ‘followers’ and earn huge amounts of money doing things they enjoy, such as creating online make-up tutorials and filming themselves playing video games with their friends.
We live in a world where robots are taking human jobs.
We live in a world of limited resources, but are guided by an economic system that require infinite growth.
In this constantly changing and curious world, architects seem to be standing rigidly by the side of the river whilst the rest of the world is bobbling along downstream.
The Architecture Academy studio proposes that to survive in the world as it is today, the successful architect will need to be nimble, dynamic, collaborative and social (in the boat moving downstream). To sidestep the potentially oppressive economic contradictions in which we all live, they must become political, self empowered actors who work on their own terms. They must also create practices that allow for their employees to do the same.
The Studio
Students will focus on themselves in this studio. The first exercise will be for the students to design their life. Students will be encouraged to think about what sort of person they’d like to be. Who do they admire? What do they want to achieve? What lifestyle do they want? What issues are they interested in? Knowing what type of person they want to be will inform what sort of architect they would like to be. This in turn will inform their design approach to architecture. Students will choose from a list of ‘Expert’ titles that they will use as a guide for the remainder of their design work. This list will include:
Beauty Expert
Consultation Expert
Form Making Expert
Technology Expert
Sustainability Expert
Communications Expert
Money Expert
Housing Expert
Experience/Storytelling Expert
Facade Expert
Typology Expert
Community Expert
Students will design their own design process based on their chosen expert character. They will look at other architects and students design processes and develop their own. Students will then decide on how their practice will be set up as this expert and will create their own live practice website.
The studio is interactive. Students will fill in timesheets or diaries of their life. Students will follow how much time they work, play, think, sleep, eat, engage with politics, read, experience buildings, sing, listen to music etc. They will decide on what sort of balance they would like to have. Are they too lazy? Do they work too hard? Would they like to have a child? Are they a drug addict? Are they happy? Do they need a social life? Do they need to sacrifice parts of their life to achieve what they want? Their diary will help guide them towards their desired lifestyle and will also help them form their practice manifesto.
Students will then either design a building, an app that connects the public with architecture, a youtube channel, a computer-game or anything else that seems relevant to their chosen expert title. Students will be encouraged to engage with the public. To build contacts in the real world. They will be encouraged to upload their work onto instagram and other media sharing sites for public engagement. Students will be encouraged to publicly make comments on and copy successful parts each other students work. They will design a team building exercise with their group. They will share their expert knowledge with each other. Students will be encouraged to think of ways to make money from how they have chosen to spend their time.
June 2019