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Landscaping features and places to hang out mark the CCA.

Architecture schools are not merely about teaching the theory of architecture, but about fostering a sense of aesthetics through the environment experienced – so that a student is more than just another brick in the wall, says Apurva Bose Dutta, an architect who did her undergraduate thesis on the subject.

The five years I spent in the Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA) helped me realize that an architectural college is not just about design studios. More than that, it’s about the candidness in the physical design of the college, amongst the students and between the faculty and the students.

The function of an institute is to evaluate ideas and to grow outwards. Physically, a school of architecture needs to have a very strong architectural expression that could give the students an atmosphere for their creativity to thrive. Teaching should promote healthy dialogue rather than reflect a process of dogmatic assertion.

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Spaces shouldn’t be regimentally planned or arranged; they should seem to flow. Transition, interactive spaces or open galleries are what form the backbone of such institutes.

Change is an inevitable part of life, and this is evident in the concept on which architectural schools are based today.

Besides simply meeting the operational needs of the profession, an architectural school needs to look beyond and impart a culture of criticism which is absent in our country.

A thorough knowledge of the society and the world we live in must be imparted. Also, efforts should be made to apprise the students about India’s vernacular architecture and traditional construction systems.

The mushrooming of architectural schools has led to a drop in educational standards. It seems that the real learning commences after graduation, on joining the professional field – as there is an immense disparity between the taught subject and reality.

Today, extensive multimedia studios with electronic drawing-boards or workstations need to be incorporated, and the emphasis should ideally be on practical work.
 

Communication emerges as an important part of the profession at a later stage – when ideas have to be communicated to clients, but it needs to be practised during the undergraduate years.

A strong faculty with an open mind is a prerequisite that is sadly missing in most Indian institutes. There are so many instances where the required number of faculty is not met either. Also lacking in India are institutes that have raised the bar high enough to rope in foreign students.