Professor Karl Otto Ellefsen, Rector
Studio-Based
Karl Otto Ellefsen
At the most recent yearly meeting in Chania, Crete, between
European heads of schools of architecture the silver- or bald-
headed congregation was contemplating the rather deman-
ding European situation both in architectural practice and
architectural education. A discussion of economy dealt with
cuts and possible cuts. The judgment of practice was coloured
by few commissions and threatening unemployment. Schools
need to tailor their education in a way that, socially and polit-
ically speaking, is considered more than relevant in order to
get governmental priority. Individual schools have to stand
out in European and even global educational competition.
The fact is that quite a few of these high-rated institutions
are harvesting their crumbling finances from a world-wide
educational market. At the end, the verbose and elaborate
negotiations behind durable, brick, sun-protecting Venetian
walls of the Centre of Mediterranean Architecture seemed to
settle on some down-to-earth and even common-knowledge
conclusions. The quality of a school is more or less synonymous
with the quality and availability of the school´s teachers. In
addition, a good school needs a working infrastructure, work-
shops, elaborate IT systems and libraries. The premises must be
available to students on a 24-hour basis. The curriculum does
not mean that much, and a school might, in terms of education,
research and administrative systems, be arranged in an abun-
dance of alternative ways. What is more important, however, is
how the school stands out in the public and professional spheres
and certainly how internally, students and teachers perceive the
school´s professional culture. My familiarity with the education
of architects is contrasted with a more administrative, principal
and maybe more superficial knowledge of design cultures and
traditions. My hunch is that in terms of what surfaces as impor-
tant characteristics leading to the quality and agency of design
education is not very different from its old aunt, architecture.
