Evolution of Practice in Undergraduate Architecture Education through Institutional Formations

Abstract

Practice has always had an important place in the basis of architectural education, which exists with the mentoring
system. With the influence of studio culture, practice has been relatively more prominent than theory in architecture
undergraduate education. While the practical tendency in architectural education, which became theoretical with
Bauhaus, takes place in workshops, an architectural education pedagogy is shaped in research-practice intersections
with environments such as the Space Syntax Laboratory established at UCL. It can be said that technology plays an
active role in the orientation of education. This study investigates the question 'How has the practical approach in
architectural education been transformed?’ By using the historical research method, it examines the methods and
environments of the realization of practice in architectural education. It reveals architectural education within five
distinct periods: The ancient period, the Renaissance period, the Modern period, the Post-modern period, and the
Contemporary period. The convergences and disconnections between the workplace, competition, studio, and
laboratory, which are determined as the environments of practice in architectural education, are analyzed. As a result,
it aims to provide a critical analysis of the current opportunities and future practice possibilities that practice offers to
architectural education.