Externalization and Experimentation

response to Inchoate: An Experiment in Architectural Education by Marc Angelil

I found Inchoate to be a read that is very relevant to the questions being asked by architectural education today. I was really drawn to the comparison of education and the Apollonian- Dioysian dichotomy, studied by Friedrich Nietzsche. Both teaching and learning can be seen as a split between promoting and questioning an area of study. 

"With the Apollonian propensity for harmonious entities a sort of positivity is exerted, in terms of asserting a body of ideas, of understanding commonly agreed upon ways of thinking... At the other extreme, the Dionysian tendency to shatter established codes acquires a type of negativity probing into aspects that seem to defy logical underpinnings, scrutinizing foundations, transgressing boundaries."

 This brings to mind the lateralization of brain functions, generalized to left brain and right brain, that have been represented visually, as seen below.

Externalization

Angelil identifies the internalization of the field of architecture as an impediment to the progress of the field through the focus on: visual appearances, authorship, and the object. 
The biggest obstacle I see in this triad is the focus on authorship, and more specifically the 'starchitect' concept. These days, architecture needs to move in the direction of cross-disciplinary collaboration. Its importance has been recognized, especially when discussing sustainable building practices. With so many fields of such narrow specialization it is increasingly important for these fields to work together. Another successful example of externalization is IDEO and their aprroach to Human Centered Design that relies on an interdisciplinary group of people working towards empathetic design solutions. Part of externalizing is questioning the role of architecture and architect. What is the role of architecture? The notion of 'architect as artist'? Are buildings to be seen as objects in the landscape? Ways of negotiating space? 

Frank Gehry

vs.

IDEO's Human Centered Design

Experimentation

Questioning the role of architecture is precisely what Angelil sees as the basis of architectural education. Teaching and learning can be seen as a type of inquiry: research that proposes, tests, and reevaluates hypotheses. They "constitute acts of transgression, interrogating from both within and without...emerging unexpectedly into new positions". This goes back to the Apollonian- Dioysian dichotomy in which you must both gain knowledge and then question the foundation that knowledge is built on. By questioning both knowns and unknowns within and beyond the field of architecture, the field can expand beyond traditional boundaries and propose new solutions.