Re: Re: German Architectural Education and 'good day'
Dan,
Thank you for the welcome. The quality of American education as it relates to the fields of architecture, engineering, and art are exactly what I am concerned about. At my former school, City College of New York (CUNY), I encountered an administrative backed 'segregation' of those three majors-- something I do not believe adequately prepares students for professional practice where artists, engineers, and architects interact on a daily basis. City College is not alone in its mistake-- all others that I have researched follow the same pattern, and leave it up to the firms to do the actual teaching. As a student, this does not put me in a position to be very competitive and angers me because I am paying through the nose for an education that I feel I am not receiving.
My research has turned up only one school (the actual reason for my relocation from Texas to New York City) that teaches the correct way; The Cooper Union. However, I fear that with the recent death of John Hedjuk (sp?), the School of Architecture's former dean for quite some time, that last bastion of interdisciplinary training may be in danger of falling. In an effort to back my efforts at making a childhood dream a reality, I have decided, as I did as a child, look towards europe.
What I see is an enthusiasm and a willingness to experiment outside of the norm relatively unknown here in the states with the exclusion of the the work of Paolo Soleri, Frank Gehry, Samuel Mockbee, Santiago Calatrava's new extension to the Milwakee Museum of Art, and a couple of other examples. Also in Europe, there exists government backing of such experimentation as well as laws promoting the design of energy efficient and ecologically sensitive structures-- something U.S. politicians have been reluctant to fully engage for fear of losing political status.
Truth be told, I have never had the intent of remaining in the states due to how far behind the country lags in issues revolving around education, racism, energy conservation, and ecological sensitivity. Europe has always, and continues to lead the way in all.
The campus of the Weimar Bauhaus may have been a little ratty, but at least the output of its students relayed a widespread knowledge of other disciplines and a quality that remains today an ideal of worth. I simply refuse to pay to be inadequately trained and, in some respects, discouraged from acquiring the knowledge of related professions. The Cooper, or Europe-- there are no other choices.
Universities in the United States are considered to be far more rigorous in the U.S. as opposed to overseas, and in the eyes of Europeans, supposedly a U.S. degree was looked at in a favorable light, because it was a sign that you definitely didn't slack in school.
Dan Tasman wrote: Universities in the United States are considered to be far more rigorous in the U.S. as opposed to overseas, and in the eyes of Europeans, supposedly a U.S. degree was looked at in a favorable light, because it was a sign that you definitely didn't slack in school.