VIEWPOINT







Mapping The Common Ground


by Robert T. Segrest, AIA


 "The school is moving too
much toward theory," the
gentleman from the profession
says. "It no longer serves the
immediate and legitimate needs
of the practice and we, in the
offices, must train young archi-
tects to do the basic tasks of
architectural production. We
have to do what you should be
doing."
 "But we have a mandate
and a responsibility not to
follow the profession but to
lead it," answers the gentle-
man from the academy. "It is
no longer enough--if it ever
was--just to train students for
their first job and for registra-
tion. Rather, we must educate
them to be significant partici-
pants in solving the difficult
problems of this and future
societies. We must do what
the profession cannot do."

 The conversation is real
and immediate. It is also
fundamental to the debates
which have colored the often
tense and tenuous relationships
between American architec-
ture schools and the profes-
sion for the past one hundred
and thirty years.
 From the beginning, these
debates were highly fraction-
alized, that is to say they were
structured by the vested inter-
ests of the participants as much
as, or more than, by the com-
mon interests of the institu-
tion itself. For example, it has
been the interests of the AIA,
as the professional consensus
of the institution, to unify in
the face of disagreement and
diversity while it has been the
interest of the school, as the
autonomous academy and
protectorate of academic free-
dom, to disagree and diversify
in the face of homogeneity


and normalization. From the
point of view of the profes-
sion, then, the school, rather
than being a simple mirror of
the profession, seems more a
funhouse of distortions, an
interlude of fantasy in an oth-
erwise too real world. Over-
educated, under-trained gradu-
ates emerge unable to meet
the demands of the common
place
 From the point of view of
the school, the profession
simply doesn't take advantage
of these highly educated, in-
novative, progressive young
people.


"It (architecture) has be-
come a secondary service
profession, less and less
able to maintain the tra-
dition of architecture as a
cultural art."

 It is important that today's
schools of architecture carry
out a very real, but partial,
function. As an example, the
architecture program at the
University of Florida is an
agency for exchange, a party
to the reciprocal relationships
which constitute the institu-
tion of architecture. We seek
linkages and we demand rele-
vance, but we do not displace
or replace the functions of
others.
 Let me briefly explain how
I think we do this. The Col-
lege of Architecture at UF is
the largest of its kind in the
United States, and the Archi-
tecture Department, in terms
of student numbers, is also
one of the largest.The profes-
sional programs lead to a Master
of Architecture degree and
students follow either a six
year course of study (the four


plus two program) or a four
year graduate course of study
(for students with a non-archi-
tecture undergraduate degree).
In addition, the Department
offers two post-professional:
the Master of Architecture in
Advanced Studies, for those
who wish to undertake spe-
cialized work in one of four
areas----architectural preser-
vation, architectural manage-
ment, environmental technol-
ogy or architectural history and
theory; and the Ph.D. in Archi-
tecture, for those who wish to
pursue highly advanced re-
search or scholarship.
 The Department operates a
year round program in the
Basilica Palladiano in Vicenza,
Italy, a summer program in
London and Cambridge, and
two preservation institutes, one
on Nantucket and the other in
the Caribbean Basin.
 Juxtaposed with these aca-
demic programs is an exten-
sive agenda of architectural
research---from acoustics and
computer technology to his-
torical and theoretical schol-
arship.
 The faculty have a long
tradition of intense commit-
ment to teaching, but, rapidly,
they are enlarging their con-
tributions to the profession and
to society in terms of commu-
nity service, research and
practice. Our new faculty for
1989-90 includes two Skid-
more, Owings and Merrill
Fellows, one AIAS National
Teacher of the Year and the
recent winner of the Berlin
Museum competition. Three
of the five are female. During
the past year, our current fac-
ulty included a winner of the
AIA Teacher of the Year Award
and the winners of the Florida
Solar Energy Competition.


 To suggest that there is a
quality as well as legitimacy
in the program is a confirma-
tion of the present and the
past. But there is also worth in
the capacity of an institution
to change, to respond to criti-
cism, both internal and exter-
nal, to rechart its course, to
innovate. As the University of
Florida has evolved into one
of the best American research
and teaching universities, we,
as a department, grow and
change as well. The pattern of
growth can be summarized in
terms of a set of commitments,
an itinerary for growth.

 1) A renewed commitment
to the idea that education must
be broadly based in cultural
understanding, not narrowly
focused in professional train-
ing.
 2) A commitment to the
essential nature of graduate
study in professional educa-
tion; that is to say, a commit-
ment to the necessary rela-
tionships between research and
scholarship and practice.
 3) A commitment to inno-
vation, change, and a continu-
ing influx of the new--as well
as the maintenance of the tra-
ditions of architecture through
critical reassessment.
 4) A commitment to social
effect, not just abstract under-
standing.
 5) A commitment to com-
munication and extension.



"As part of the Univer-
sity's pattern of growth,
one commitment must be
to the idea of the profes-
sional as an academic
subject to be studied, criti-
cized and understood."


FLORIDA ARCHITECT September/October 1989