projects and articles by members

'On the Language of Architecture'- WHY and WHAT to teach

To me, the concept of architectural education is all-around education that is civic education. The idea is to educate people in understanding the language of architecture. It means increasing knowledge of our built environment for people who are not, or maybe never will be involved in architecture as a profession. To me, the idea of architectural education means exploring the buildings and design in our everyday surroundings. The built environment is built art, built history and built culture. And that context links the built environment to the whole social life of society.

To speak and use that language means interacting between the environment and people in a dialogue. In education, interaction means the dialogue between the teacher and the pupil as well as the architecture and the teacher, and between the architecture and the pupil. Through the skills of using that language, people can affect their own surroundings and finally make their environment a better place to live for all of us.

'The grammar in my teaching of this language is beauty, utility and durability.' (Vitruvius).

There is not too much beauty in the world today: we surely could have some more! In teaching I wish I could give my pupils architectural spectacles so that they could evaluate their surroundings. The goal is to see both the beautiful and the ugly sides and to enjoy the beauty. Utility is the same as functionality or practicality in teaching. The teacher should find the ideas and the subjects from the pupils' environments, from their local surroundings. Respecting the local environment gives the pupils identity - a sense of belonging to a certain place, a feeling of being a part of a bigger system, of culture.

Durability leads me to the ecological side of the environment. In building our environment we have to take care of future generations by using materials that pollute nature as little as possible. Teaching should make pupils understand that. But the difference in Vitruvius' thesis is the new denominator in this pattern. The denominator is the interactive relationship, the dialogue.

'Alphabets in the language of architecture' - How to teach

I am an architectural guide and motivate my pupils to use their own memories of their own experiments in given tasks. My duty is to experiment with the subject together with my students. Through such experiments I can encourage my pupils to give their own personal solutions. As an educator I should be able to listen to soundings from my pupils combining the voices of architecture and the local surroundings, combining individuality and understanding of the new. I should make my pupils understand the language of the built environment so that they can interact with it in a dialogue, a dialogical relationship.

Anna Hänninen

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