Episode 123: Architectural Education: Evolving Curriculum & Alternative Paths

How has the MIT School of Architecture and Planning driven innovation and influenced alternative career paths for students in the field? 

In response to their listeners’ curiosity on bridging pathways into alternative careers, co-hosts Evelyn Lee and Je’Nen Chastain interview Nicholas de Monchaux, Professor and Head of Architecture at MIT, to discuss the evolution of curriculum at the oldest architecture program in the US. They’ll discuss potential career paths students can take and how Nick created a career that blends architecture, teaching, writing — and even installation work.

Learn about the history of MIT and how its architectural program is immersed in both research and entrepreneurial culture, as well as how the history and culture of MIT has influenced graduating students’ ideas of architecture in the world. In this conversation, Nick illustrates how MIT enhances its students’ experience, the types of students MIT attracts, and how moving through unexpected spaces allowed Nick to redefine the possibilities of his career and carve a path of his own.

To wrap up the episode, Nick shares advice to students about fusing curiosity and passion into new career pathways as faculty strive to expand the profession, its impact, and who has access to it — all in an effort to find other ways to speak with and to the world.

“The architecture of our world is much bigger than bricks, although bricks are very, very important. I'm interested in that largest meaning of architecture, both as a sense of what we describe architecture as being  — which extends far beyond buildings both bigger than them and much smaller than them — and also extends far beyond the traditional notion of practice as well.”

Tune in next week to hear a conversation with Evelyn and Je’Nen as they discuss the upcoming Mental Health in Architecture Summit.

Guest:

Nicholas de Monchaux is Professor and Head of Architecture at MIT, as well as a partner in the architecture practice modem. He is the author of Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo (MIT Press, 2011), an architectural and urban history of the Apollo Spacesuit, winner of the Eugene Emme award from the American Astronautical Society and shortlisted for the Art Book Prize, as well as Local Code: 3,659 Proposals about Data, Design, and the Nature of Cities (Princeton Architectural Press, Fall 2016). His design work has been exhibited widely, including at the Biennial of the Americas, the Venice Architecture Biennale, The Lisbon Architecture Triennial, SFMOMA, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Storefront for Art and Architecture and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. He is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. Until 2019, he was Craigslist Distinguished Professor of New Media and Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at UC Berkeley.

📍 Show Links:  

MIT School of Architecture + Planning

MIT Department of Architecture

📚 Continue Learning:

modem

Local Code

Spacesuit

💻 Learn about our podcast partner:

👉 This episode is sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction 

Interested in using your design training to prompt change in our industry? The AISC is looking for creative architects to help shape how our profession approaches structural steel. They’re building a program to bring industry leaders together to harness structural steel innovations. Learn more at aisc.org/architecture.

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