The Education of the Architect: Learning from the Black Mountain College Experience

Abstract

As architecture is currently facing the many complexities and challenges of a liquid era, critical thinking in architectural education relying on historical references of successful pedagogical models has become paramount. Our paper proposes to look back at the pioneering role played by the Black Mountain College (1933-57) in a recent past of major social and cultural upheavals. This now-mythic institution stood up for cooperative learning as well as for the assumption of personal risks as crucial parts of architectural training. Despite focusing primarily on liberal arts, Black Mountain College's educational programmes envisioned some of the most progressive architectural practices of its time as a frame for creative thinking and community life. Moving away from nostalgic reviews, we are most interested in revealing the stirring action and the social impact architecture had in that educational community. As an experimental art-centered, highly democratic community where professional and personal lives intertwined, where the meaning of failure and success were openly discussed, and where the combination of freedom and commitment to an educational project provides valuable lessons, the legacy of the Black Mountain College allows us to assess our goals as present-day Architecture Schools vis-à-vis the social and cultural conditions justifying our own existence.