Intersections : an addition to the School of Architecture, the Institute, and the City

Abstract

"All education practice implies a theoretical stance on the educator's part. This stance in turn implies - sometimes more, sometimes less explicitly - an interpretation of man and the world." -Paulo Freire .The assumption made is that formal decisions are not · neutral nor value-free. Form decisions embody interest and a theoretical/philosophical stance. Form does matter. The making of architecture is taking a position, it says simultaneously what is not as well as what is. The architectural education proposed at M.I.T. is: *a holistic approach; this implies inter-disciplinary cross-pollination as a means to inform architecture. *dialogic; the means by which one approaches synthetic understanding. *public; this implies responsibility and accessibility to the world outside of academia. The design of an addition to the school of Architecture at M.I.T. is put forth as an attempt to say in form what an architecture school ought to be.