are invariably students and educators, discounting the participation of clients. Furthermore, the few studies that focus upon inter-disciplinary teams unsurprisingly concern other subject areas such as medicine or social care. Of a small but representative sample of the literature considered, there is general support for interdisciplinary team-working, as it is not only reflective of practice, but enables students to gain vital skills in dealing with increasingly
Sternas et al, 1999; Ogrinc et al, 2003, Leipzig et al, 2002; Camp, 1996). One piece of research on design-related discipline teamwork featured an interdisciplinary assignment involving architecture and engineering students. The findings
from this study -
engineering and construction (Allen et al, 2011) a view that has been supported elsewhere (Shelton et al 2010).
Peer versus public critic
The limitations of these studies are that they do not consider more qualitative aspects of teamwork, such as the integrity of the design process and outputs. Although the research on
alone, identified . However, this study only
concerned itself with standard architectural outputs and not the more complex demands that architects are increasingly required to respond to in industry. So whilst she maintained that
architects, ,
(Goldschmidt, 1995, p.189) predisposes them to efficiency in both team and individual work environments, the expanding specialisms associated with construction make it hard for architects to synthesis quite so many skillsets. Furthermore, although her study concluded that the contrasting outputs from the sole practitioner and the team were of comparable
quality, these outputs were judged not by end users but by peers, and does not therefore
Latham and Egan reports.
3.6.2 Pedagogic alignments in skill-set two: participatory engagement with clients and civic concerns
Professional versus public
As explored previously, research into community-engaged scholarship provides a substantial pedagogic framework for Live Projects, yet it has largely been limited to medicine and social care. The missing research on community-engaged architecture projects has an added complexity, in that the profession as a whole has a troubled history regarding their ability to serve the interests of the public. As reflected in the title, this thesis argues that Live Projects are able to educate the twenty-first century architecture professional. Yet what we mean by architecture professional is increasingly contested (Duffy, 1998). As Jeremy Till points out, Architects conflate professional codes of conduct with an ethical stance Till, 2011, p.171),
development and transformative enaction (Till, 2011, p.165). It is this emphasis on the participation of others that has a potentially significant impact on how the public may perceive architects. Live Projects address this by enabling students to work with the public in order to address civic problems at a crucial stage within their development, rather than only after they have qualified, which is often the case. As the late architecture educator and critic, Reyner Banham once noted, a professional is a man with an interest, a continuing interest in the existence of problems Till, 2011, p.166). Therefore professionalism is acquired through the proce
and Nicholson argue is what is needed to, Nicolson et al, 2000, p.11). For many commentators, (Forsyth, 2009; De Carlo, 1980) clients or end users, participation in the design process is essential to providing a more responsive form of architecture to achieve new spatial conditions as well as new types of architectural practice (Blundell Jones et al, 2005). As American industrialist and entrepreneur, Andrew Carnegie, described it, teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results, in other words, results that are innovative, progressive and entrepreneurial. In Live Projects students most often work with end users and cli
(Andrejko, 2008, p.8) [98] which not only enables them to, (Sara, 2004, p.2) but they experience
(Nicolson et al, 2000, p.11) enabling a significant culture shift away from the position of cultural privilege that architects were traditionally educated to occupy (Banham, 1990).
Emergent professionalism
architecture. A 2010 General Teaching Council sponsored DEMOS report identified that:
Across society, professio behaviour
almost any line of
work can do a corruption of the term it
is part of a broad shift in
, (Craig and Fieschi, 2007).
98 “The AIA’s Public Policy on Diversity and Inclusiveness states, “Architects must encourage and celebrate the contributions of those who bring diverse experiences, views and needs to into the design process….yet neither the AIA not the profession in the U.S. is the mirror of the society it serves.” (Andrejko, 2008, p.8)
This represents both a challenge and an opportunity to move away from what Burton
(Bledstein, 1976) and what Michael Eraut similarly described as, -centered rather than client- (Eraut, 1994, p.5) in order to move towards a new professional identity that is co-defined by both architects and the public. For this reason, it is contended that professionalism cannot be engendered without civic engagement and participation, a position that is advocated by theorists, educators and practitioners (Tovivich, 2008; Sara, 2004; [99] Caruso and Vanky 2008; Albrecht, 1988) [100].
Civic participation and humanistic planning theory
Although civic participation in architecture schools is significantly under-theorised, it is distinctly less so within architectural practice. There have been a number of architectural theorists who have explored the importance of public participation (Sanoff, 1978; Blundell Jones et al, 2005; Jenkins and Forsyth, 2010; Jonathan, 1998;Ellis and Cuff, 1989) although
broadly defined as humanistic planning theory (Albrecht, 1988) and it has subsequently been argued that these theories can serve as a transposable theoretical and practical framework for participation in architecture. However, there are limitations. According to Johann Albrecht,
The more the architect is willing to live up to the demands of the current model of
participation, the more he (sic) becomes a mere facilitator and coordinator, relinquishing the essential features of architectural activity (Albrecht, 1988). This reflects an anxiety often cited in arguments against increasing participatory design in architecture (Serageldin, 1997).
99 According to Sara, “community situated project ‘motivates’ students and increases, ‘…the level of enjoyment and responsibility.”
100 Giancarlo De Carlo, Ralph Erskine, Lucien Kroll, Charles Moore have also helped nurture public recognition SEE: Albrecht, (1988).
vocabulary that can be used
of both architect and the inha Albrecht, 1988, p.30). Absent from this theoretical position is the distinction bet
transient roles assumed by both students and public participants in a Live Project. Given that the students have yet to qualify as professionals, their focus is not on asserting or maintaining their professional status since they do not have one at this stage in their training. As this
r, to return to
An analysis of how Live Projects offer students the opportunity to develop and even co- aged negotiation, without
contribution to theories of participation and humanist approaches. This is in addition to the pedagogy of community engagement.
3.6.3 Pedagogic alignments in skill-set three: managing emergent ambiguities in risk exposure and decision-making
Ambiguity tolerance as professional asset
As outlined in Chapter One, the levels of ambiguity in being an architect are greater than ever before (Gutman 2009; Imrie and Street, 2009). In response to this, learning from ambiguity is a theme that the researcher has previously explored in her own
research involving the design, implementation and analysis of an interdisciplinary
collaboration between architecture students and MBA students (Cassells, and Harriss, 2010) the researcher has also observed that there are notable pedagogic differences within the learning styles preferred by the students. Within the two comparative case studies, the researcher discovered that MBA students were more focused upon descriptive instructions for the collaborative assignment whereas the architecture students were more able to work with more
determined in response to evidence from both industries as well as other learning studies identified that there were strong correlations between leadership skills and the ability to recognise, explore, and profit from ambiguous and chaotic situations in a world of constant change (Shibley, 2006; Wilkinson, 2006; Prince, 2002). Similarly, cognitive theorists have attributed higher problem-solving, decision-making and creative abilities to those more able
hin clearly defined parameters (Kirton, 1978; Rouse et al, 2011). The available studies are limited in that they do not feature
interdisciplinary learning experiences that are situated within the real time context that characterises a Live Project; which involves unanticipated and often changing ambiguities and uncertainties. The primary research enquiry therefore examines how students are often required to alternate between innovative and adaptive behaviours, depending on their suitability to address this gap in knowledge.
The relationship between risk and ambiguity
As discussed in Chapter One, levels of exposure to risk in architecture and the commercial world in general, is ever increasing. The causational link between ambiguity tolerance and risk
taking have been explored in a number of studies within business education as well as clinical studies, (Epstein and Schneider, 2007), and suggests that those more able to cope with ambiguity are also less risk averse. Although not all risk aversion is necessarily an asset (as a number of studies concerning the recent banking crisis have identified) more often the value of risk taking within a learning context is that it exposes us to failure that later improves our ability to effectively calculate and respond positively to risky situations. As Chiles and Hodder
argues, Chiles and
Holder, 2008, p.197).
s- (Carmeli
and Schaubroeck, 2008), resilience, resourcefulness and leadership, deemed essential skills in an increasingly uncertain world (Hyatt, 2001, p.13). As captured in the popular business maxim credited to Bill Moggridge of global product innovation company IDEO,
fail often; succeed sooner Early failure is viewed positively within business management as well as entrepreneurship and innovation circles (Schrage, 1999). Furthermore, evidence from studies of teaching risk management emphasise that risk management is most effective when modeled in -
Unsurprisingly, the importance of developing learning experiences that involve a level of risk taking is not an area that has been theorised in architecture, given the limitations of a Design Studio
and Live Projects, the third party participants such as the clients are the most likely source of risk, as the production of any architectural process or outcomes is entirely contingent upon their wishes.
Alan Chandler, from the University of East London therefore makes an important point in (Chandler, 2011)
since how architects handle the risks presented by the client and furthermore how we manage risk or establish risk governance of behalf of the client is key to defining our own professional competencies and identity (Power, 2004; Green, 2012, p.176).
3.7 Summary of Conclusions
This chapter has explored the pedagogic alignments between Live Projects and established learning theories with a view to demonstrating the pedagogic integrity of Live Projects. It has also helped to
acquisition of certain skillsets assisting further in framing questions regarding the three skillsets around which the primary data gathering can be structured. However, what it also highlighted is that much of the discourse on learning behaviours in Live Projects has been captured in research generated by other disciplines and not architecture. There is evidently a gap in knowledge and an obvious opportunity for architectural discourse to take up the slack on this issue. But this also reveals a further possibility that Live Projects could help generate new pedagogic theories; theories that might then resonate in disciplines outside architecture.
Furthermore, if good research is defined by its impact, then the added value of demonstrating the pedagogic integrity of Live Projects is that this exercise offers a resource to educators seeking to set Live Project activities with a clear set of pedagogically informed learning outcomes. This is usually a mandatory requirement when the projects are formally assessed.
Some of the most cited literature on Live Projects identifies them as
nurturing students to become critically active, they are understood to prove transformative in learning situations, not least because they allow students to question, challenge and recognize the value and relevance of what they are learning. H
positioning relates to practice as much as the academy positioned as they are on the margins of both. For this reason, they are able to take a critical position in relation to practice too, one that may prove transformative in imagining practice alternatives for the future. This is supported by the skillset alignment exercise, which identified that gaining the missing three skills of (1) teamwork and inter-disciplinarity, (2) client collaboration and civic responsibility and (3) risk tolerance and ambiguity management is not only pedagogically grounded, but enables students to engage with challenges facing practitioners and the pressing concerns of practice.
Within this chapter, the pedagogic alignment and analysis helped ensure that the terms used to frame the research questions were conceptually sound. This is best illustrated in the example of how the term inter-disciplinarity was cross-examined.
With the literature review completed, the next phase of the research (Part Two) focused upon primary data collection and analysis. Subsequently, Chapter Four describes how the study was designed to ensure that data was collected and analysed in order to answer these questions. This involved identifying suitable research methods for data gathering and theoretical framework to examine the findings and also further explicated the research questions, whose relationship to the findings provided by the literature review were clearly aligned.