It is common to discuss the effect of technological advancements on various Enlighten­ment typologies (library, museum, concert hall, etc.) and certainly one can witness changes in the buildings that house various schools and departments of architecture. The disappearance of may-lines and drawings on boards and their replacement by virtual images (printed out, inevitably late) and overloaded outlets are common in today’s studio environment. Such changes in the physical nature of the architecture school may certainly highlight more essential questions regarding the nature of architectural education. This studio, however, will not only attempt to project an appropriate building for an architecture school of tomorrow. Rather, we will study a broad range of responses; from the forma­tion of the Ècole Polytechnique and Ècole des Beaux-Arts in France to the experiments at the Bauhaus in the early 1920’s and the immigration of many Bauhaus professors to the United States: Gropius at Harvard, Mies van der Rohe at the Armour Institute (now IIT), the Albers and others at Black Mountain College. We will also consider more recent ap­proaches such as the Open City, Cranbrook, Archeworks, Mockbee’s Rural Studio, and the influence of the Texas Rangers.

It is expected that such inquiry will flesh out questions surrounding the education of a professional architect. What should the graduate of a professional school of architecture know, or know how to do? What is the relationship to practice, to the discipline of ar­chitecture, to the construction industry? Should the architect be educated in means of representation, means of construction, business acumen, and/or the discipline of archi­tecture? What is the role of studio, history, theory, technology, and other courses? And finally, what is the appropriate building to witness, support, encourage, or develop such an education? What is the role of a building dedicated to educating builders? Should the building be didactic, or a blank slate?

The intent of the studio is to open up the question of what it might mean to educate a professional architect and then to develop an appropriate architectural response to frame such an education.