The latest instalment of our series of AR Reading Lists: seven carefully chosen pieces from our archive, free for registered users
For many students and teachers, September marks the beginning of the academic year. Both our September issue and this Reading List examine different sites and processes of learning, exposing the gaps in the curriculum and the disproportionate spread of accessible education across the globe. Being squeezed through the funnel from primary school to university is taken for granted by some, but for others it is a lifeline. As we hurtle towards the climate catastrophe, decolonising and decarbonising our institutions becomes ever more vital, and oppressive hierarchical structures must dissolve. With architectural education in particular coming under scrutiny, it falls to those privileged enough to access it to think critically and bring about change.
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Francesca Hughes and Lesley Lokko on a future for architectural education, AR November 2021, Manon Mollard
‘Decolonising the curriculum and unravelling carbon logics are seen as extremely dangerous, but that’s exactly what we need to do’
AR 120: Beatriz Colomina on Education, AR December 2016, Beatriz Colomina
‘Is radical pedagogy an oxymoron, since radical means challenging the origins of a system and pedagogy implies a system?’
Pedagogies of power: education within and without the institution, AR September 2022, Marie-Louise Richards
‘Pedagogies in architecture are pedagogies of power. Confronting colonial legacies and complexities involves recognising that imagination is more important than education’
Sumayya Vally: letter to a young architect, AR September 2020, Sumayya Vally
‘You will soon develop a mistrust for the historical record. Listen to that’
Hide and seek: Imagine Montessori Primary School in Valencia, Spain by Gradolí & Sanz, AR May 2021, Rafael Gómez-Moriana
‘The building functions not only as a facility for learning through play but also as a didactic component of the school’s educational programme, offering lessons to be learned through architectural observation and direct experience’
Memories of a Bauhaus Student, AR September 1968, George Adams
‘Restlessness started in 1921, and in 1922 the Bauhaus took official notice of the new direction which the students’ thoughts were taking. It was the students themselves who played the decisive role’
Manplan 4, Education: Nurseries, AR January 1970, AR Editors
‘The transition from home to the nursery school should, ideally, be almost imperceptible’
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