The University of Sheffield School of Architecture is committed to exploring the social and political context of architecture and architectural education. At the level of education, the School is developing new approaches to the teaching of architecture, most of which challenge the incredibly conservative pedagogy that hides in most Schools behind a thin veneer of ‘radical' formalism. The School is not interested in the cult of the tutor as individual or the continuation of Beaux Arts methods of education by fear and stress, but instead has developed new methods including the abolishment of the crit/jury and the use of Live Projects. Both of these can be found in the Activities/Initiatives section of our website. Our aim is to encourage and empower students in a politically and socially responsible mode, so that they are capable of making judgements rather than just deploying knowledge or skills in an unthinking manner. Our concentration is less on the object beautiful and more on the strategies and tactics that may inform architectural production.
The School is also focussed on research (with the best record in research of any UK School over the past ten years) and the way that this informs both our teaching and government policy. Our research aim is to improve the quality of life through research into the built environment – this may sound simple but is maybe quite rare as an ambition. In recent polls the School has been placed in the top three of UK Schools alongside the AA and the Bartlett.
