Built Environment Education

How to approach built environment education? How to begin if one does not even grasp the large spectrum that is architecture. What is the essence of architecture – houses, piazzas, streets, cities… fine small pained windows or grand arches? Bustling cafes or delighting, interesting courtyards? All of the above and much more. That which the awareness is constantly conveying to us about the changing built environment.

But how to teach it? One can simply wonder and watch. One can smell and discuss. One can linger in one place and compare, or simply wander and allow impressions to melt into the subconscious… take people to interesting places and trust in their senses; to staircases, alongside buildings, into rooms, onto streets, where the pavement ends and grassy fields begin, into the landscape, into the world. Architecture is in our surroundings, there is a multitude to touch and experience, at home or on the other side of the globe.

One can continue the study of architecture by enjoying the scenes which open up between buildings. By studying the miniscule details of buildings, connections between structures, compatibility of structures to the chosen materials or the mass comprised by the wholeness. One can delight in and sense multiplicity of routes, the dawn of curiosity.

Whilst studying the environment one can allow oneself to be seduced by light as it floods into buildings, rooms, and alcoves. One can fall in love with balanced composition in buildings, cities or even parts of a façade. One can feel the material, its texture, feel, smell, look… and fall in love with the shades.