Architectural Education in India, an Overview

A culture of criticism is indispensable to a school in order that our young generation remain conscious of the values that govern our life, and have an opportunity and the intellectual capacity to be critical of those values. In Western countries where schools of architecture are often supported by the profession - through donation by alumni for example - it might be natural for the profession to expect from the schools a kind of servicing role. But in India, where schools are supported by the community at large, through state grants, etc., the perspective must include objectives that go beyond the operational needs of the profession. If the ageless task of architecture is to produce an appropriate environmental response to people's aspiration; to a better life, then in India, that response will have to take into account aspirations of the Indian people as a whole, though pluralistic, community. This will have to be done by recasting the whole pedagogy and replacing the present functional/rational preoccupation with 'making' (resolution) and 'concerned making'. To be able to bridge the gap between the technological considerations and their ethical dimensions, schools must seek to equip students with necessary understanding of their own society and the world around them