Peter Gray once explained that earlier, people learned what they needed for survival. Culture provided children the freedom to acquire knowledge and skills to become effective in their job pursuits and agriculture and, later, the industrial revolutions changed the focus of learning. He was not wrong on both accounts. If one were to look at how our ancestors lived and we live there is a vast difference and the changes will only get bigger as time goes on?
The set structured procedures were to increase productivity rather than to create value; education, provided a way to produce successful followers as workers. The concept of improving efficiency through specialization has been adopted in education. This has led educational institutions to focus on specialized programmes to suit market needs, not recognizing the true spirit of education in its interdisciplinary nature and holistic development of students.
That’s when one comes to the subject of architecture. The field itself has been around since the historic times. There are Ancient architects, painters, sculptures and masons had created wonders of the world that are not even possible in the age of technology. But it is not the same today, today, architecture has become a profession to produce operators to obey commands. The true spirit of a holistic development has been lost from the profession. Pakistan has a right to feel this way as they hold some beautiful architectural wonders in their country from the ancient times. As home to the great Indus Valley civilization, Pakistan could have excelled in architecture education, and producing world-renowned architects, but there are hardly any examples.
It is sad to say that Universities are too concerned about producing graduates aligned to the follower mentality to replicate or create eye-catching buildings that are impossible to construct. Areas such as critical thinking, problem solving, innovativeness, and collaboration, cannot be found in Pakistan’s curriculum. The current framework for the bachelors programme hardly considers them essential knowledge areas.
