Architecture Program Report Tulane University New Orleans ...

engage architecture and design on a daily basis.
Central to the education of the architect at Tulane is the promotion of lifelong
learning. To this end, students are introduced to the broadest array
of social, economic, and political concerns, all of which are framed in
light of the presumption that students will engage in the practice of
architecture. The impression of practice as a self-motivated continual
arch of learning is reinforced by enlisting the student’s own interests
within the studio and course format; while course material provides a
framework for the dissemination of knowledge, students are encouraged
to formulate their production in terms of a personal research. While this
is true throughout the course of a student’s education, the formation of a
personal research reaches its apogee in the thesis year.
Issues of the profession are further reinforced in all studios, with specific
emphasis placed on the particulars of professional concerns in the
required comprehensive studios. These studios not only engage the
complex relationships between technology, construction and structure,
program, history, site, context, and form, but stress the nature of the
‘client’ as an individual or group conditioned by the social, economic,
legal, and natural environment as well. Hence, a heightened awareness
of the myriad concerns associated with professional practice—what may
be called the culture of practice—is promoted.
Numerous lecturers and critics have populated a stronger lecture series
over the past few years as well. (See the list of lecturers and critics since
the last accreditation visit.)
Moreover, the Tulane School of Architecture Advisory Board—made up
of local, regional, and national practitioners, academics, and cultural
critics—actively supports the program by developing funding sources
and participating in reviews of the curriculum and student work on a
biannual basis.
Architecture Education and Society
As might be understood in light of the section immediately above
(‘Architecture Education and the Profession’), an enlightened
professional is fully engaged in those concerns associated with the social
culture. Tulane School of Architecture, in seeking an active and mutually
beneficial relationship with its immediate constituency group(s)—the
citizens and institutions of the City of New Orleans—addresses social
concerns directly. Many of the studio programs work directly with the
issues associated with public welfare, including master planning,
environmental design, housing, homelessness, and the design of
government, religious, and educational institutions. Thus, a large dose of
‘the real world’ enters into the student’s imagination, a proposition that is
affirmed by the university-at-large. Because of the School of
Architecture’s somewhat unique ability to address social concerns in a
material, or ‘concrete’, sense, TSA enjoys a high-profile not only within
the university, but as active members of the planning and development
offices and committees for the City of New Orleans as well. This is
evidenced in the amount of community service by the faculty,