Archinect - News

Foster + Partners chairs Trailblazer Group, the UK's first model maker apprenticeship program

2024-08-22T11:58:00-04:00

A brand new apprenticeship opportunity will grant aspiring workers in the UK's architecture industry the chance to learn professional model-making skills in an initiative chaired by Foster + Partners in collaboration with a group of other British universities and design firms. The three-year Trailblazer Group program is officially a Level 6 qualification (equivalent to a bachelor's degree).

Apprentices will earn a salary and other benefits while they learn. As the firm's announcement notes, this is meant to spur greater diversity in the profession. It coincides with the movement to reform pathways into architecture that has recently been taken up by RIBA and factored extensively in the body of fundamental overhauls proposed by the Architects Registration Board (ARB) last year.

The latest NCARB report shows how architectural education changed in 2020

2021-08-16T14:04:00-04:00

The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) has published new data giving insights into the growth of architectural education throughout the 2019/2020 academic year. As part of their tenth annual NCARB by the Numbers report, NCARB examined the number of individuals beginning, continuing, and graduating from architectural education throughout the academic year as well as information on demographics.

Overall, the number of new and total enrollments in NAAB-accredited programs continued to rise for the 2019/2020 academic year, as did the number of graduates. 7,968 new students enrolled in an NAAB program in the 2019/2020 cycle, representing a 3% increase on the previous year, and a third consecutive year of steady growth. Of those, 51% enrolled in a Bachelor of Architecture, 48% enrolled in a Master of Architecture, and less than 1% enrolled in a Doctor of Architecture. Just over half of new students (51%) were women.

Related on Archinect: Total number of U.S. ...

Only $90 for Frank Gehry's wisdom?

2017-02-21T13:32:00-05:00

Don't tell grad students carting around six-figure debt, but those who wish to learn from one of the masters of architecture can now do so for $90. MasterClass, a San Francisco-based educational video company, is now taking pre-orders for an online class taught by none other than Frank Gehry himself. Students can sign up for the class, which offers "video lessons from the instructor, interactive exercises, course materials, peer interaction, and more." Watch the trailer below to see what you'll likely learn as Frank winds his way through his model archive (and memories of nearly six decades of professional practice)...

New London School of Architecture to open in 2015

2013-10-01T21:13:00-04:00

Rather than get trapped in the false dichotomy between ‘academia’ and ‘practice’ − where one is where ‘thinking’ happens and the other is about ‘buildings’ − we thought instead about ‘design’ and ‘research’ as activities that both students and practitioners would engage in throughout their careers. The question was how can you make a bridge to unite these two groups around those twin pursuits?

Will Hunter, the Deputy Editor of The Architectural Review, developed the London School of Architecture out of the "Alternative Routes for Architecture" think-tank, active in 2012. While much of the school is still being designed, Hunter will serve as Director and is seeking program accreditation by the ARB.

The Possible Mediums Conference will explore mediums tangential to architecture

2013-01-18T18:18:00-05:00

The University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture, The Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture, University of Kentucky College of Design, and University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning, are hosting the Possible Mediums conference in Columbus, Ohio February 7th - 10th.

The Possible Mediums conference is composed of a series of workshops and panel discussions revolving around four “possible mediums.” Challenging the boundaries of architectural convention, the invited workshop leaders employ exploratory processes rooted in mediums external to the discipline (such as film or comics) or developed from atypical applications of more conventional mediums (such as drawings or models). The technical sophistication and inventive applications of their work reflect two major developments within speculative architecture of the past decade: a broad diffusion of technological expertise and a shift from critical to projective theory. Preservin...

33 Alternatives to University or Design School in Europe

2012-05-14T20:45:00-04:00

To do things differently, it helps to connect with new people and contexts. Universities and design schools seldom make that easy... This handout contains the most interesting ones we’ve found so far. It includes [with their permission] the findings of a scoping study for Schumacher College in England. No quality judgment is implied by inclusion in (or omission from) this list.