(442)DEBATE AS METHODOOGY TO LEARN ARCHITECTURAL CRITICS

摘要

Among the capabilities distributed by knowledge areas belonging to the studies of Architecture, thecapability of being able to express architectural critics is a specific one assigned completely to theComposition area, both by the Ministery and by the different curricula of the some thirty schools ofarchitecture existing in Spain. Learning how to make an architectural critic is a complex process basedupon some previous knowledge (history of architecture, theory of architecture, etc.), initially to beacquired by students in the first academic year and to be trained in different subsequent subjects inorder to reach an adequate level in this capability. In the School of Architecture of the UniversitatPolitecnica of Valencia, the capability of making an architectural critic is specifically worked in thesubject of Architectural Composition during the fourth year and Architectural Restoration in the fifthyear, both belonging to the Department of Architectural Composition. The same capability is workedwith a level even higher in the subjects of Theory and History of the Preservation and InterventionCriteria within the master in Preservation of the Architectural Heritage. This capability is developedthrough a methodology based upon debates that the students organize in the classroom. Reducedgroups of students prepare a topic previously agreed with the professor to become a kind of “experts”of it with the help of bibliography, articles, documents, etc. They make a brief presentation generatingquestions among the audience of their fellow students. After this presentation, this audience must tryto answer those proposed questions that often have not a clear or definitive answer, but manypossible critical interpretations. These debates allow the students to express personal visions of atopic founded on previous acquired knowledge in these or other subjects, having to argue a criticalposition. Besides, this methodology encourages an intense and active participation of all the studentsof the classroom, not to mention the development of the capabilities of reflection, oral exposition andargumentation.