Studio Teaching For A Social Purpose

An EU Asia-Link grant offered the opportunity to examine the appropriate sequence of teaching and learning for architecture students working in developing countries. That process is more or less taken for granted wherever architecture is taught as a discipline, yet its premises are seldom examined in any detail. Following a suggestion by A. N. Whitehead, a sequence of learning is described, which gives a proper place to design. The thinking of the American philosopher Donald Schön is re-examined to see if it throws light on the practice of architecture and the principles to be adopted in teaching it. I argue that, properly constituted, a studio-based programme of architectural education remains an appropriate methodology for the teaching of design in the context of developing countries, even as it acts as a critique of the conventional pedagogic methodologies of parent institutions in both west and east.