Christopher Benninger: We Must Move from Talking in the Air to Writing Serious Texts on Paper (Part-2)

Christopher Benninger regarded as a legendary figure of Indian and international architecture, had built a great legacy which will keep inspiring generations. Great Expectations: Notes to an Architect, his most recent and final book, published posthumously in October 2024, is a sequel of sorts to his bestselling 2011 title, Letters to a Young Architect, and a philosophical retrospective of his distinguished career. Following is an excerpt from this book. The Chapter is called Note 4- Future of Architectural Education in India: Crisis and Challenge

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Four: We must move from fuzzy logic to systems thinking

While it is meaningful that we start off teaching sketching and sculpture in the first year, we never equip youngsters with an understanding of the anatomy of a building. We fail to put forth a consistent, holistic and systematic image of what a building is.

In medical studies, during the very first year, students devour ‘Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body’. If a beginning medical student doesn’t grasp this systematic view of the skeleton, muscles, nervous system, blood circulation, and organs, they can’t go further. They are held back, and must try once again!

In the same spirit, if students do not know all the basic systems of a building, they should not be allowed go forward into their second year of studies. This includes knowledge of the structural, electrical, plumbing, and IT networking systems; air conditioning; kitchens and solid waste; fire escapes and firefighting; basic concepts of sustainability; and building management systems. However, our colleges lack the courage to guide students by using honest marking and grades! I fear our colleges of architecture are too addicted to the fees their students pay, and thus fear to fail anyone who is really a failure! They need the money, not the student. Let us turn that ugly paradigm upside-down!

‘Indian Anatomy of a Building’ must become the first course in our schools! A test may even be conducted by the Council ofArchitecture to weed out mere ‘fee paying’ students who will never be architects. We owe it to these students to show them the exit door and let them find their true occupation and passion in life. They can move on to more useful lives and our profession can be a stronger fellowship of capable leaders.

Five: We must move from random acts of creativity to systematic innovative thinking

We put huge effort into teaching what cannot be taught: creativity. At the same time, we totally neglect what can be taught to everyone: technology and logical thinking. We cannot make a person creative; we can only recognise creative traits and encourage them. But we can teach building systems, building materials and building methods. We can teach evaluation techniques, design criteria and deductive logic. I am yet to find a school that teaches students how to put a building together. I am yet to find a masters’ degree programme that focuses on what we actually do in professional studios.

In our professional studios we manipulate technologies of construction materials and processes to solve architectural problems. It is the poetry with which we do this that makes architecture a great art. Poetry can only rule over science if poets know the science of their art! I personally believe that most Master’s degree programmes are a huge step backwards in a youngster’s career. Postgraduates from abroad return crippled, losing two critical years of real building construction experience, while becoming financially indebted. They have been diverted sideways into a no man’s land of problems they can never solve. And, they expect to be paid higher salaries for their newfound confusion!

Bachelor’s degree programmes must produce complete professionals. Master’s degree programmes should focus on areas that require more specialized knowledge, skills and sensitivities. No architect needs a Master’s degree to be a good professional. The architect only needs a good Bachelor’s degree and a lot of experience!

The reality is that we don’t have good Bachelor’s degrees. Thus, ‘finishing schools’ have been promoted for the professionally disabled and for the psychologically challenged! We are producing crippled and incomplete graduates! Centres of Excellence can ameliorate this tragedy by filling the gaps in our system of education.

We must design a Master’s degree programme around the creation of construction documents; around building technologies, and mechanical equipment systems; around construction details and their standardisation; and, around construction management and making buildings. In postgraduate learning laboratories students must integrate complex functional, contextual, structural, mechanical, and spatial systems that fulfil stated performance criterion. If any school of architecture does this now, it will be the leader tomorrow!

Six: We must move from talking in the air to writing serious texts on paper

Our schools of architecture create an illiterate lot of good talkers! Our graduates cannot write intelligent professional letters, minutes of meetings, site visit reports, contracts and project proposals. They cannot express their poetic intentions in words as a mirror against which to assess their creative intentions in built form. They are denied the use of an introspective tool allowing them to have critical dialogues with themselves, and maybe even others.

Writing can be taught in writing studios where a writing professor guides students through in-class writing exercises, improving skills by correcting errors on-the-spot, during writing sessions focused on creating essays on architectural theory, history, technology and the social issues being confronted in other classes. We need a literate profession!

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