Educating African Architects: A Step Toward Building a Sustainable Future

• In Event: Sustainability/development

Proposal

Introduction

This case study provides a glimpse into an architecture program that is seeking to upend traditional architecture education by (re)inverting the current architectural education pedagogy through a process that fosters discovery and learning through applied material and field research, local craft, and a seminal design/building experience. This (re)inverted pedagogy harkens to the deeply rooted apprenticeship and fellowship models through which the field was originally established. The architecture program in question is the African Design Centre (ADC), an initiative driven by and operated within the MASS Design Group. This unique architecture education program simultaneously overlaps learning and practice while functioning within the frontier plains of the burgeoning African architecture scene. The ADC recognizes that in order to produce architects sensitive to the social, environmental, and economic dynamics necessary to produce a sustainable future for Africa, architecture education must foster these leaders endogenously.

The Case in Question

The ADC is an initiative established by the Boston/Kigali based non-profit architecture firm, MASS Design Group. The mission of the ADC is to, “Empower the leaders who will design a more equitable, just, and sustainable world” (ADC, 2017). According to the program website, between 2017 and 2050 Africa's population will double and yet the number of architects per capita is shockingly low (1:130,000 in East Africa vs. 1:2,000 in the U.S.); these problems are compounded by the fact that there are few intra-continent education and training programs to develop architects internally (ADC, 2017). Given the dramatic shortage of African designers and the predicted population increases, infrastructure and the built environment will become increasingly important in creating socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable development throughout Africa.

The ADC seeks to begin the process to fill this shortfall through their 20-month design fellowship. Design fellows are selected from a competitive applicant pool of recent graduates from architecture, engineering, and related design programs throughout the world. The goal is to develop both thought-leaders and the initial links of a blooming network of ambitious designers committed to contributing to social change through architecture. The program combines classroom-based instruction focusing on technical skills, a design-build project to give fellows practical experience navigating the entire design and construction process, and research initiatives to foster an understanding of pressing issues including urbanization, climate change, social equity, and building materials/technologies. In order to create the next generation of leaders poised to build the Africa of tomorrow now, the ADC provides design fellows with hands-on experiences situated in real-life settings. Through this approach, the ADC seeks to foster fellows with the technical, professional, and leadership skills necessary to execute that mission.

Throughout the entire program there is an ebb and flow of internal and external influences that constantly permeate the boundaries between learning and practice, over time eroding any clear distinction between the two in a way that is both productive and valuable. The ADC program operates within MASS Design Group’s functioning firm in Kigali, Rwanda, providing fellows with constant interaction and exposure to day-to-day processes, procedures, and professionals. Throughout the learning process, courses and curricular aims are structured to privilege stakeholder and site engagement, including the integration of local knowledge, craft-based experimentation, and cultural inclusion.

Purpose, Questions, & Analysis

The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of post-graduate level students in a pan-African architectural training program to identify promising practices for architecture education in emerging economies across the African continent. The research questions explored in this study were as follows:

1. Is the ADC serving its mission to: “Empower the leaders who will design a more equitable, just, and sustainable world” (ADC, 2017)? and,
2. How can architecture education and training programs effectively prepare graduates to seamlessly enter the profession as productive, skillful, and knowledgeable practitioners?

The final paper will be based on field-research conducted in Kigali, Rwanda between June and August of 2018. The following data were collected during the course of field-research: interviews, surveys, curriculum documents, and observations. In analyzing the data from the field, this study will utilize the National Architectural Accrediting Board accreditation standards, specifically the Student Performance Criteria, which break-down the learning objectives of architecture education into the following four categories: critical thinking & representation; building practices, technical skills, knowledge; integrated architectural solutions; and professional practice (NAAB, 2014). These categories will serve as the basis for analyzing the program’s curricular structure and aims. ‘Communities of Practice’ will be applied as the theoretical lens to probe student perceptions of their learning experiences and the value attributed to various aspects of the program (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002).

Conclusions

The lessons to be extracted from this examination have the potential to have broad application far beyond the ADC. In a world of ever-shifting economic realities where previous modes of production are quickly being out-paced by networked knowledge and the rapid deployment of new ideas and products, there is a growing recognition that the knowledge economy is becoming the driving force in the global economic order. Nowhere is this more apparent than in emerging economies that are currently poised to plunge headfirst into the rushing waters of global economic change. In this time of economic evolution, education is a fundamental mechanism for adaptation and survival. As such, it is imperative that we now, more than ever, seek to promote ways of providing students with opportunities to experience learning deployed in real-life situations, where they will fully internalize the knowledge, skills, and perspectives necessary to operate as confident and qualified professionals.

Author

• Cierra Mantz, Soka University of America