Architecture major restructured
Architecture major restructured
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The number of sleepless nights students spend in the newly restored Paul Rudolph Hall, toiling over models and sketches for studio projects, might soon decline: The architecture major is undergoing a renovation of its own.
The Architecture department revised requirements for the undergraduate architecture major in response to feedback from students, faculty and administrators criticizing the heavy workload and stress level of the major. Before the changes, which will go into effect in fall 2010, the major required that students take two key courses in the fall semester of junior year, which interviewed students said resulted in many all-nighters in Rudolph Hall.
A reformed architecture major could mean fewer sleepless nights.
A reformed architecture major could mean fewer sleepless nights.
The architecture curriculum committee first began revising the requirements for the major in April 2008, in response to student and faculty feedback. The new changes, which include a reduced number of required as well as elective courses, will go into effect in the fall of 2010.
The new curriculum will reduce the number of required course credits and the number of electives for each concentration, as well as move “The Analytic Model” course to sophomore year. This will allow junior architecture majors to take two semesters of architectural history survey courses — to be taught by School of Architecture professors Peggy Deamer and Eeva Liisa Pelkonen ARC '94 — in addition to the current required junior studio.
The adjustment of these requirements will allow the department to move forward with its larger goals of enhancing the program’s course dynamics, said Bimal Mendis '98 ARC '02, Director of Undergraduate Studies for the major.
“We see the implementation of these changes as an organic process that responds dynamically to continually evolving criteria and opportunities,” Mendis said. “The changes made will streamline course content and improve course offerings.”
The process of revamping the architecture major began in April 2008, when the architecture curriculum committee met with School of Architecture Dean Robert A.M. Stern ARC ’65 and identified two problematic areas: the requirement of taking both the junior studio and the design analysis course in the fall semester of junior year and the absence of any architectural history courses to fill the void left by Vincent Scully ’40 GRD ’49, who stopped teaching the class even before stepping down last September.
Architecture major Volkan Doda ’11, who is still on track with the old requirements, said he often spends 20 hours a week on projects for his architecture studio class.
“The expectations in terms of presentation, work quality and conceptual background in the architecture major, like in most other arts courses at Yale, are usually very high, which forces you to spend more and more time on projects,” Doda said. “And the other thing that gets junior architecture majors into a hefty shake is the lack of a solid historical background, both in theory and in practice.”
Mendis said the introduction of architectural history survey courses will provide a broader cultural context to the study of architecture and allow closer examination of buildings in urban environments.
“One of the items we were lacking was a comprehensive survey in the history of architecture,” Mendis said. “The intention of the two new courses is to provide a much needed overview of a range of historical and theoretical approaches in the study of architecture.”
The strenuous requirements restrict architecture majors from pursuing Yale’s holistic model of education, which stresses exploration before specialization, architecture professor Kent Bloomer said.
“I think a very heavy workload is detrimental to the prospect of the student taking full advantage of Yale College,” he said. “Hard work is fine, but it should not be overloaded in a particular major. Architecture majors will not get credit for their work outside the major in graduate architecture schools, so they are forfeiting access to other types of study that will be extremely difficult to experience later on in life.”
The school is also planning to initiate a joint venture with Tsinghua University that will allow 10 Yale students and 10 Tsinghua students the opportunity to participate in a studio course in Beijing, China as a part of Yale Summer Session Study Abroad. Though the program will not replace any required courses in the major, Mendis said it will be one of a series of steps toward internationalizing the major’s course offerings.
Correction: October 9, 2009
The article “Architecture major restructured” failed to identify two people as Yale alumni: Professor Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen ARC ’94 amd Bimal Mendis ’98 ARC ’02.
Comments
None 2 years, 4 months ago
This should be of great benefit to future students in the program. As an undergraduate alumni with a BA in architecture, I can attest to the intense nature of the program. At the time (less than 15 years ago), the junior studio was one of the most time intensive courses on campus. With its meeting in class roughly 6 hours a week and a required 1 hour lab, it was more demanding than other courses, and all for the same 1 class credit! (I believe this was changed later to give an additional 1/2 credit) Additionally, that class time was dedicated to discussing the work you had done outside of class and would bring in to be critiqued. This made for roughly twenty or more hours of work for 1 class credit. In the semesters when you had to take five courses to get your credits in, there was no choice but to have your work for other classes suffer. The nature of my creative time is usually more intense than the work required in other more mechanical assignments. So while a student in the program, this meant at least one all-nighter a week! (Even with good time-management skills...)
This should not to be interpreted as whining about having to work hard (as all Yale students do), but simply a statement on the logistics and the intensity of the program. In spite of this, I feel it was, and probably still is, one of the strongest undergrad programs out there, due mainly to the dedication of the great professors and even some of the grad students who would be involved. The chance to work with and be taught and guided by some of the most known names in current architecture was a true honor for inexperienced and young (18-21 year old) students.
The program was not pre-professional at the time (one structures class being the "engineering" portion), but I believe this was probably the greatest strength it possessed. By the time I graduated, I had no intention of pursuing a career in the field of architecture. But what I had learned during the course of the major influenced other areas of my thinking and creativity that I can feel even today. From music performance and composition, to photography, graphic design, and even creative writing, the ability to make order from chaos and the ability to conceptualize projects as both whole creations in relative and relational environments and individual entities requiring thought to the finest detail has helped create success in fields as varied as education, consulting, and marketing.
I applaud the Department of Architecture for continuing to refine a great program. I also applaud Yale for continuing to focus on the development of student minds as a whole as well as their dedication to the financial aid programs and generous alumni whose help often make such programs available to students who might not otherwise get the chance.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
I remember many 120 hour weeks. I attended a different architecture school
None 2 years, 4 months ago
Yes, I think the "20-hour weeks" is a typo! We had 15 hours of in-class time for studio each week, and much more than 5 hours outside class.
This is not unlike an issue we had at Ball State, with a studio course and a systems integration course in the same semester. Essentially, it was two studios.
Contrary to the article's suggestion, knowledge of architectural history doesn't do much to help students learn creativity, design process, and time management. These need to be instilled by wise teachers--almost psychological counselors, or personal trainers --in the studio.
Architectural education would be well-served by having professional EDUCATORS (people trained in the field of Education) overhaul the whole paradigm.
None 2 years, 4 months ago
I didn't know students at Yale were going soft... Architecture school, although not perfect, does tend to shed a light on how you work toward deadlines and juggle the responsibilities of a professional career. Quite often multiple deadlines have to be met simultaneously. Where better to learn this than in school?
None 2 years, 4 months ago
This article repeatedly refers to the "Architecture Department." There is an architecture major at Yale, but there is no architecture department. Toward the end of the article, the author refers to the school's plans to initiate a program in China. The School of Architecture is a graduate school. The article indirectly identifies a problem with this program: Unlike other majors in Yale College, this major and the one in art don't belong to a department, making their administration unclear.
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