Building is also a verb

Architecture is about buildings? Should schools of architecture be involved with learning to build? Do we need to clarify what we mean by 'building'? The RIBA/ARB criteria uses terms such as ‘understanding’, ‘Knowledge’, ‘theoretical concepts’, and ‘conceptualisation’ - an academicisation firmly within the world of the head, not the hand. ‘Building’ as practiced in the validated Studio Project is born of academic vagueness and strives for resolution. Whereas a ‘building’ starts it's life as a product of control (Planning, speculation, legislation, safety, budget, ego), yet when complete achieves vagueness in terms of how it is understood, used, adapted and absorbed into place. How can teaching address this mismatch between academy and profession, between name and action? Two case studies from the UEL construction programme illustrate the tactical use of control and variety to demonstrate that the reality of building can only be experienced by building reality