Everything starts and finishes in your head. You are controlled by whatever you grant power to. The narrative begins with the idea that philosophy and art profoundly impact one another and are important to one’s existence.
A critical interpretation of modernism’s history and a re-evaluation of the contemporary area of aesthetics are used to probe modernity. It is focused on the discipline’s historical development, as well as its methods, rules, and cutting-edge approaches to modern architectural and urban thought.
The ability to think critically may be the most crucial trait for an architect. We are evaluating both their work and that of others constructively and critically. This talent is typically seen as belonging solely to the design process. However, it offers substantial advantages when utilized in all facets of architectural practice.
History and critical thinking is a program, the three goals are to:
- Connect current debates and projects to a broader historical, cultural, and political context.
- Examine historical writings and how social, political, and cultural aspirations are incorporated into effective arguments, particularly in accounts of architectural and urban modernity.
- Examine knowledge production and dissemination technologies in the context of recent cultural and geopolitical modifications.
The main goal of the design process is to learn from the previous step to improve the next one rather than just tearing it down. The goal of critically analyzing your architectural profession is to improve it, not destroy it.
To contextualize Design-Build as a pedagogical tool for architectural education in India, it is crucial to underline how it connects to the legacy of conventional architectural knowledge systems. One of the most overused clichés is that India is both a young nation and an ancient culture. How these competing times and realities are reconciled or at odds with one another are reflected in our laws, rules, cultural norms, and—most importantly—in educational institutions like architecture schools.
To pinpoint the distinguishing features of the architect’s professional thinking and define the position of the key elements in it, it is useful to study the variety of theoretical conceptions of architectural thinking that are now available. By examining how the phenomena of architectural thinking are understood by various academics, we will be able to construct a wide theoretical picture of architectural thinking as it is now practiced in modern architectural science.
As a result, critical thinking in architecture is a sophisticated, multi-level set of cognitive and meta-cognitive actions that an architect consciously employs when working on a project in order to enhance performance in general and provide innovative, high-quality architectural solutions. The larger framework of professional architectural concepts depends on critical thinking.
Based on research and analysis of different theoretical conceptions of architectural thinking, three stages of critical thinking—logical-psychological, metacognitive, and philosophical methodological—can be identified, allowing its individuality to be demonstrated. The uniqueness of critical thinking is found in a multi-layered structure of operational, statutory, and attitude-level acts. The findings of this study and subsequent theoretical investigations into the critical thinking of architects will allow for the advancement of this skill to the level of pedagogical practice and the development of a methodology for integrating critical thinking skills into architecture education programs.
“Design thinking is neither art nor science nor religion. It is the capacity, ultimately, for integrative thinking” – Tim Brown
Architecture sometimes involves needing to come up with a solution that addresses a variety of actual and intangible limitations that are present at a certain site or project. Architecture is a field that straddles the fields of the arts, engineering, and social sciences. It is as much about people and psychology as it is about engineering and building. At its foundation, architecture recognizes the multiple restrictions that a particular problem faces, including the need to delicately address both soft (people, perception, intangibles) and hard (zoning regulations, laws, building limits, etc.) difficulties.
Understanding the problem holistically is one of the most crucial aspects of any study or career since we frequently deal with multidimensional challenges involving numerous dimensions rather than one-dimensional difficulties.
A degree in architecture offers you great analytical and critical thinking skills that may be used in a variety of fields beyond the design and building of physical environments.
Though design thinking is indeed the application of design concepts to a variety of fields, it is frequently misunderstood as having a direct relationship to “design” in the conventional sense. For instance, rethinking the design of an insurance scheme would require extensive study, data collecting, analysis, and prototyping to successfully create a new policy that would be acceptable to both the end users and the corporation that is underwriting the contract. To prepare themselves for this wave of transformation at a time when the world is changing at a rate that has never been seen before and the internet is revolutionizing almost every industry, organizations large and small must invest time and effort into rethinking their production and delivery platforms.
Critical thinking, analysis, and problem-solving at the organizational level would be crucial in this dynamic time to set up for future success and to maintain competitiveness in the years to come. When redesigning processes from an organizational viewpoint, cerebral tools and thinking approaches like teamwork involving diverse views, design thinking, and life-cycle thinking would be highly beneficial. A degree in architecture exposes you to the importance of these instruments up close and personal, and in my opinion, gives you an intangible skill set that would enable you to contribute to nearly any field you chose to work in.
References-
https://www.aaschool.ac.uk/academicprogrammes/postgraduate/history-and-critical-thinking
https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/repurposing-architecting-skills-4-ef5bf7e06c8a
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/463/4/042046/pdf
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/architecture-way-thinking-adithya-prasad//
