Teaching history and theory of architecture proposal for an anthropological approach

Abstract

proved sufficient to give students clear orientation in History and Theory of Architecture and therefore architectural design. As a consequence, the debate as to how History and theory of Architecture should be taught is still on. The paper attempts to highlight the pitfalls of traditional conception-perception duality where the architect conceives or generates design ideas and the critic perceives them through criticism. This argument produces the larger percentage of the reading material in architecture. The traditional role of the critic is to find out what architecture means largely from the intentions of the designer and as to whether the architecture, as an artifact, communicates them. In the African context, architects are continuously called to design for institutions which are new in the sense that they have only been articulated in a social or cultural form but not as buildings. This paper therefore attempts to sustain a debate on how architects can develop an architecture which is valid through its role in fulfilling social needs as well as conveying discernible meaning as artifacts.