Teaching practice as research. The case of the ‘Dutch Academy’ in the 1960’s and 1970’s
Bardí-Milà, Bertaa; García-Escudero, Daniela and Moreno Sanz, Joanb
aDepartment of Architectural Design, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain, bDepartment of Urbanism and Regional Planning, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
Abstract:
Three spheres define the activity of any school of architecture: profession, teaching and research. These are usually associated in pairs with one another. The teaching-research vector could be called: “teaching practice as a form of research”. From this vector, which envisages instruction not only as an educational or pedagogical practice, but also as a field of research in and of itself, raises the possibility of not only improving the current courses, but also formulating new ones, organizing seminars to prepare future instructors or presenting research projects. According to these preliminary arguments, an innovative experience that showed a positive feedback cycle between profession, teaching and research took place in architectural workshops undertaken at Dutch University in the 1960’s. Academy does not remain indifferent to social crisis, thus institutional and pedagogical model is questioned by professorship and student organizations. Dutch students asked for more democratic administration and a syllabus closer to real problems. Dutch structuralists played a key role in taking a critical approach towards traditional methods in Architecture and Urban Planning, in both, profession and research.
Keywords: Research; Teaching; Profession; Dutch Academy