Architectural Technology: A Brave New Design?

Newly emerged degree disciplines, like Architectural Technology (AT), often face a unique set of challenges: pedagogically, conceptually and professionally. Novelty can entail an absence of a clear niche for a subject, whilst at the same time offer potentially exciting spaces for conceptual innovation. With the current lively debate surrounding the future shape of formal training for students of architecture, education for Architectural Technologists (ATs) is likely to be less than optimum if it simply replicates the existing pedagogy used in architectural education. Indeed, the rising technological and design challenges faced by ATs in practice highlight the need for a re-imaging of pedagogy at degree level, principally concerning how the design process is taught and understood. An appreciation of the evolution of AT as a degree discipline is crucial to further growth, as is greater definition of technologists' education. This paper will briefly outline historical growth of the degree discipline and review distinctions and definitions of AT that have already been stated in the UK and elsewhere. It will explore where greater uniqueness of identity can be shaped, and will suggest that that a development of pedagogy in design subjects is where increased distinction of AT programmes is most required. The paper will also offer a possible new pedagogy for teaching design.