A discussion on the current dialogues and debates taking place between the worlds of study and practice in the US and around the world with Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, the 2007 Recipient of the Topaz Medallion Award. Currently, design professionals are facing what must be the most significant challenges we have seen since the start of the industrial revolution. The past 200 years have brought about changes the dramatic affects of which we are just beginning to realize. How are schools playing a role in design and policy to make design more effective in these changing times?

For an article, Transforming design education in light of integrated practice and sustainability, in the April 2007 issue of AIArchitect magazine, 65 top educators and practitioners were given a challenge: Design the change between the professional curriculum of fall 2009 and the professional curriculum of today. Develop diagrams to illustrate the difference.  Brown outlines the following as key elements in how we should understand architectural education:

1. A good liberal foundation
2. A well-structured architectural program touching on design, history, theory, technology, and professional practice
3. Significant experience in interdisciplinary teamwork
4. Significant experience in service learning, focusing on connecting learning and understanding community needs as part of the process of change within a civil society
5. Structured travel experience
6. Strong communication skills – visual, written and verbal

The challenges students are facing in a global economy, what schools are doing in response to emerging issues and how professional practice is engaging these new issues are the subjects of this PodCast.

The AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education is awarded jointly by the AIA and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) to an individual, who must be living at the time of nomination, who has spent at least a decade primarily involved in architectural education, and whose primary contribution to architectural education has been on the North American continent.

For a closer look at the article, please visit AIArchitect.