Abstracts

Becoming an Architect: Narratives of Architectural Education

by James Thompson




Institution: University of Washington
Department:
Year: 2017
Posted: 02/01/2018
Record ID: 2161269
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/1773/38079


Abstract

This dissertation examines the personal narratives of several aspiring architects to investigate the emergence of occupational identitiesor how individuals navigate their education to construct a sense of themselves within the architectural community. By interpreting the content of these narratives in relation to several relevant strains of contemporary discourse, this project exposes and foregrounds features of architectural education rarely considered by educators and scholars in the field. Becoming an architect is presented as a holistic experience that requires psychological resilience and meaning-making strategies in the face of various challenges that undermine personal investment and wellbeing. I argue that adopting such an approach towards architectural education is essential to understanding, informing, and improving the professions fundamental (yet historically problematic) objective of cultural reproduction. This project is thus meant to set the groundwork for future studies that focus on how aspiring architects navigate the more human dimensions of their education. Twenty-five years ago, in 1991, Dana Cuff published Architecture: A Story of Practice in which she asked What is the metamorphic transformation of the layperson into the architect? Interviewing members of the architectural community across the United States, she crafted a compelling narrative that described architectures sociocultural milieu. Most notably, she revealed certain schisms, dilemmas, and contradictions integral to the architectural community and the architects role in society. For instance, individuals are often initially attracted to architecture based on images of professional practice that they later learn are illusory. This project revisits many of the themes from Cuffs book, although the story is set in a new historical context. The central tension in architectural culture that she exposed between ideology and action, belief and practice, continues to hold. Yet, a host of structural and cultural changes within and beyond architecture over the past 25 years necessitates a reexamination of architectural education. While the purview and boundaries of architectural practice have broadened and blurred, the profession is increasingly worried about becoming obsolete. The demand on architecture schools, therefore, is to continue attracting future practitioners and educate them to practice competently, on the one hand, and imagine unprecedented modes of practice, on the other. In order to enrich and update Cuffs story, this project incorporates new understandings of higher education and professional development that foreground holistic and transformative dimensions. For instance, I apply occupational therapys notion of occupation as a framework to conceptualize how humans engage in activities, make commitments, and belong to various social communities in various ways that form self-identities and shape their future trajectories. Adopting these perspectives demands a more grounded understanding of architectural educationAdvisors/Committee Members: Anderson, Alex (advisor).