On (Architectural) Teaching and Learning

Yesterday I was invited to speak on a panel discussion with Albertus S. Wang, from the University of Florida about Space and the Making of Space makers, with Prof. Gunawan Tjahjono & Prof. Herman D. Sudjono as panelists. Mr. Wang presented his experiences about pedagogy, practice, and place, while I shared my experiments in teaching thinking in architectural design studio.

At the end of his presentation, Mr. Wang shared a quote from Peter Zumthor’s book “Teaching Architecture, Learning Architecture” (1998):

“Young people go to university with the aim of becoming architects, of finding out if they got what it takes. What is the first thing we should teach them? First of all, we must explain that the person standing in front of them is not someone who asks questions whose answers s/he already knows. Practicing architecture is asking oneself questions, finding one’s own answers with the help of the teacher, whittling down, finding solutions. The strength of a good design lies in ourselves and in our ability to perceive the world with both emotion and reason. … Students have to learn to work consciously with their experiences of architecture. Their allotted tasks are devised to set this process in motion.” [My emphasis.]

While exploring possibilities of space making with students, they often ask me what exactly I mean by a particular task. And when I try to explain by giving indirect examples, as mentioned in this posting, students seemed to hanging for dear life on every single word I spoke of. Mr. Wang apparently also came across this problem where his students were holding on to his words while working on an assignment, to which his response to the student was: “I already forget what I told you.”

What should become clear to all (architectural) learners is that teachers are just human beings. Although most of the time we try to be mindful about what we say, like everyone else, sometimes we would only say things in passing. Sometimes we just babble on for the sake of giving you some kind of feedback. Sometimes we would make things up just to appear intelligent and resourceful (when in reality it’s just BS). Sometimes we would actually say something opposite of what we think just to see how other people would react. Sometimes we are just being sarcastic or wanting to joke around. Or sometimes we are just having a bad day that we just want to take the easy way out. But sometimes we actually are inspired with sudden flash of brilliance that doesn’t come very often, really.

So as learners, we should all be mindful about these possibilities, so we are able to filter out the things that don’t really matter, but at the same time be alert for the times when those flashes of brilliance actually happen.

Be mindful of your own learning. There is only so much information you can take in and digest: throw out the junk you don’t need. Otherwise, if you stuff your head with junk, sooner or later you will find it choking and stop digesting. You are your own filter.