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Perspectives on Architecture and Children
This article first appeared in:
New Horizons for Learning
"On the Beam"
Vol. IX No. 2 Winter, 1989
p. 7 :168
Introduction
After more than twenty years of work in the design of learning environments for children, George Vlastos, Architect, and Anne Taylor of the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning and School Zone Institute, have developed a new system for teaching Architecture and design. It is called Architectural Design Education. The system teaches the problem solving process used in the creation of material culture and buildings to students at a young age. It integrates creative activities usually associated with art class with the traditional disciplines taught in a classroom setting. Finally, it improves both teachers and students' ability to interpret, relate to, and positively affect their environment.
The Philosophy
How is creativity and "higher level thinking" best encouraged in children? The fostering of creative thinking has traditionally been a challenge for art educators, yet many programs have not been able to fulfill this role. Despite research in art education and emerging theories of how to teach art to children, art products often reflect a sameness and a lack of challenge for participants. Part of the reason is that art has often been regarded as a less important "frill" and as a separate holiday from "real" learning activities. Architectural Design Education seeks to minimize the separation of artistic and creative endeavors from "classroom" learning by integrating many different types of knowledge through the theme of architecture and design.
The concept of integrated learning is not new. General and art education literature often testifies to the value of integrated and "applied" learning, which promotes the use of acquired knowledge in solving problems. Contrary to rigid classroom teaching styles, the thinking process cannot be memorized or rehearsed. Rather, it requires the application of knowledge as a means to achieving higher levels of thinking. Thus to encourage creativity, a student must be given a challenge, along with the freedom to pursue a solution with a variety of tools. Visualization and graphic communication are some of the most important of these tools, but they are often sadly neglected in the classroom.
Similar to Architectural Design Education, recent theories about how to teach art have attempted to strengthen the relationship of art to the classroom. Discipline-Based Art Education, for example, seeks to develop students' abilities for self expression, their perception of art, criticism and judgment of art, and the relation of art to culture and history.
Architectural Design Education (ADE) complements DBAE in that it also develops self expressive skills, critical aesthetic thinking, and relationships to cultural history. However, unlike DBAE, it does not concern itself only with methods for teaching "art", but provides a number of methods for teaching creative problem solving. It does not encourage only "art for art's sake" but focuses on design problems related to the creation and control of the physical environment. Architectural Design Education views man as a part of the environment, not apart from it. Thus it treats art and architecture as integral to all of life's activities, not as a separate subject to be taught by itself.
Challenges and Benefits
An important challenge facing the implementation of Architectural Design Education is one of changing tradition and attitude. Some educators and administrators feel that teaching architecture only adds to the burden of teaching the core curriculum. However teachers who have participated in ADE programs often disagree.
Teachers report a new interest in local architecture and urban planning, and find the introduction of new methods of visual teaching and learning is both challenging and rewarding. They report that students enjoy learning and have an increased awareness of their environment and community, work for a longer time on their tasks, and react well to working with visiting architects who end up as "pied pipers" because of their knowledge and ability to draw.
Teachers also report that students learn better when the information from one class can be used in another, such as the use of geometry in the development of a building, or the discovery of designs taken from nature to relate period styles to certain places and times in history.
Another benefit of Architectural Design Education is that the skills gained offer an avenue to the visually oriented child who may be more adept at image communication than verbal facility. It also offers the non-English speaking or bilingual child a chance to communicate schematically. And to the timid teacher or student who thinks s/he cannot draw, this method of expression offers a representational way of communicating what one "knows" rather than visualization drawing (or drawing what one "sees.")
Perhaps the strength of the ADE program is that its inherent structure supports integrated learning. Architecture lends itself well to integrated or interdisciplinary learning because it so well subsumes math, science and art. Furthermore, Taylor has often been impressed by her Native American friends who have no word for "art" in their language, but see art as a way of life -- or life as a work of art. Thus Architectural Design Education becomes a way of life in the classroom promoting the use of basic knowledge content and skills as a means to an end, not as an end in themselves.
Dr. Anne Taylor is Professor of Architecture and Planning at University of New Mexico. She is co-author (with George Vlastos) of School Zone: Learning Environments for Children a guide for teachers, parents and community members to the assessment and improvement of learning facilities. School Zone also includes an overview of research on the relationship of design of indoor and outdoor environments to successful learning. Bibliography, index. [ISBN 0-913947-00-8]
Copyright © 1989 New Horizons for Learning
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