NEW EDUCATION = NEW PRACTICE

Under the Victorian Values, the profession controlled education. The tail wagged the dog, and stasis was built into the system. With the massive widening of the field that architecture now addresses, the gentleman architect can no longer keep up. Small wonder that others have claimed our territory.

So changes to educational values and processes become not only a pedagogic nicety but also perhaps a professional necessity. The present values, inscribed in education, are not serving us so well, and so are also failing society. We need to break the moulding of the perfect architect away from the individual-male-genius-hero. From this will come a sea change in the way that the processes and products of architecture are conceived and perceived.

Of course there is a problem with this proposal. Knowledge can be controlled, subjected to criteria, whereas it is notoriously difficult to legislate judgment. This leaves ARB and RIBA in a tricky situation. To get round this we need new structures of validation.