Is it possible to teach how to design? What stands at the core of the paradigm that encompasses the theoretical, applicative and experiential spheres of the architectural discipline? The architect’s training calls for a deep and radical reflection on the foundations of educational programs, as well as on how updated the current teaching models and learning tools are for the profession of the architect, intended as both a social actor and an intellectual-technical figure. Schools of Architecture, as places where - as said by Kahn - the student’s attention is brought to what is exchanged and its utility in the process of learning, experimentation and testing of the most advanced techniques and tools in the field, must necessarily make a critical comparison of their cultural and didactic program, with the prospect of expanding their horizons and fostering international exchange. The School, a place where knowledge is both produced and transformed, aims at training competent graduates in the terms of conception, design and management of architecture, capable of handling the complexity of the design process, which encapsulates a wide range of competences. The outcomes of the Polytechnic approach to education are recognizable and specific pursuits, which should be at the same time complementary and synergic, in the light of a professional market in constant evolution, which requires skills and tools that help enable networking, flexibility and dealing with change in the contemporary world. The conference is an opportunity of dialogue between two brilliant institutions within the European context, both characterized by a polytechnic background: the Scuola di Architettura Urbanistica e Ingengeria delle Costruzioni of Politecnico di Milano (AUIC) and the Escuela Ténica Superior de Arquitectura dell’Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (ETSAM). Such a dialogue is an occasion to transmit a design culture aimed at triggering a debate and active discussion on the tools and methods of teaching architecture.
Jesús María Aparicio Guisado (Fri,) studied this question.