ABSTRACT

Assessment in architecture and creative arts schools has traditionally adopted a ‘one size fits all’ approach by using the ‘crit’, where students pin up their work, make a presentation and receive verbal feedback in front of peers and academic staff. In addition to increasing stress and inhibiting learning, which may impact more depending on gender and ethnicity, the adversarial structure of the ‘crit’ reinforces power imbalances and thereby ultimately contributes to the reproduction of dominant cultural paradigms.

This book critically examines the pedagogical theory underlying this approach, discusses recent critiques of this approach and the reality of the ‘crit’ is examined through analysis of practice. The book explores the challenges for education and describes how changes to feedback in education can shape the future of architecture and the creative arts.

chapter 1|24 pages

Rethinking the Crit

chapter 2|7 pages

My Teaching Journey

chapter 3|5 pages

Art School

A Beautiful Uncertainty

chapter 4|6 pages

What are Crits For?

chapter 5|9 pages

Viva Co-Disegno (Living Co-Design)

Exploring Round-Table Reviews as a Process of Co-Creating Collaborative Designerly Knowledge

chapter 6|14 pages

Not Knowing

chapter 7|10 pages

Recalibrating the Design Jury

chapter 8|9 pages

Design Jam

Expanding Thinking through Improvisation

chapter 9|14 pages

Collaboration and Community

Critique as a Technique for Students and Teachers in Art College

chapter 10|18 pages

Ecology of the Crit

chapter 11|13 pages

Transformative Design Teaching

Challenging the Didactic Assumptions of Polytechnic Schools through the Lens of the Professional Role of Architects

chapter 12|12 pages

Time for a Reset

Critique as a Technique for Students and Teachers in Art College

chapter 13|6 pages

Yes, No, and Perhaps

An Inclusive Model of the Crit

chapter 15|6 pages

A Certain Uncertainty

Letter to a Young Architect

chapter 17|9 pages

Breaking the Chains

Beyond the Beaux-Arts Tradition of Architectural Education in the United States

chapter 18|7 pages

Umpiring from a Distance

Towards Inclusive Architectural Design Studio Crits

chapter 19|14 pages

Notes from the Online World