Technical Skills for Students of Architecture

Architects employ science in order to understand the structural and environmental performance of their products, and apply technology in order to assemble them. And although the role of the architect has changed/evolved even within recent history, the relationship between engineering science, construction technology and the design of the built environment has been at the core of architectural practice throughout history. 2000 years ago, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (80-15 BC) commenced The Ten Books on Architecture with a chapter on “The Education of The Architect”, where he states: “The architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by this judgement that all work done by the other arts is put to the test”. Vitruvius proceeds to explain and differentiate between practice and theory with the need for an architect to have “a thorough knowledge of both”.1 This paper describes the pedagogic approach of the Technical Studies department at the University of Westminster to the architecture course for degree (B.A.) students. It demonstrates the product of this approach in the form of a small sample of student work over a period of roughly ten years