The self taught architects I know of date back to the beginnings of the profession (1700-1870s in the US) these were wealthy educated folks who designed buildings that are much more simpler than the buildings we design now.  Also there was an extensive period of trial an error as is the case with Thomas Jefferson who tore down and remodeled his house several times before it was finished ( and by finished I mean he ran out of money).

As for redundancy, I don't think having some knowledge of the structural, electrical, plumbing, lighting, heating, air conditioning, civil engineering, landscape/horticulture and real-estate financing that go into a given project can hurt.  If anything architecture schools tend to be a little too soiled and should require students to take courses outside of architecture and engineering as we need to be able to communicate with a wide range of folks to get our work done and we rarely design buildings for other architects in real life.

Over and OUT

Peter N

I would say architectural education and being self taught are more divergent than redundant. Many schools don’t focus on technical, professional or performance aspects of architecture and when you start working, there is so much knowledge and experience required that being self taught will automatically put a person at a disadvantage. In addition, there is no base knowledge that everyone who takes the current tradition of college, grad school and working will have.

I don’t think there is any real advantage to allow architects to be self taught especially when the base responsibility as an architect is to protect the life, health as safety of the public. There is nothing preventing people from pursuing their own interests in architecture but the format of education, experience and examinations is still valid in my opinion.

yes. 

I'm making a list of all the skills and abilities architects need as part of a project I'm working on. I have over 600 so far and still going. I put an x next to the ones that were addressed in school. Maybe about 40 of them. What is so redundant? 

So many? I think there are more architects leaving the profession than non-architects coming in, no?

You mean more Designers are branching into architecture - and they are for the most part already accomplished in their related design fields (Heatherwick, Devlin, Oliasson etc). Note that they still rely on a team of skilled architectectural professionals to execute their projects. Whether or not school actually teaches these skills is another matter.

Education is what you make of it.  The value of having time space and resources to think and play with ideas for a small time is very valuable.  It is like childhood...you learn fundamentals that you carry into adulthood...but not how to do your taxes...

With so many self -taught architects/people who have digressed from other streams into architecture...

Gonna need examples before I accept that there are "so many"