ABSTRACT
Each time that I encounter attempts to rethink the crit I have a strange mixture of feelings – a glimmer of excitement in finding resonant collaborators, a quiet internal groan of “not again”, and mild surprise that this is still an issue – such is the endurance of the culture of architectural education. Yet I did find hope in the current project – Rethinking the Crit. My observations and reflections resonated with my own experiences and research, all of which inspire the train of thought and argument in this chapter. Here I explore the value of adopting principles drawn from improvisation as means to rethink the crit. The “design jam” is proposed as a space for expanding architectural identity and allowing a re-examination of the values underpinning feedback and assessment in architectural education.
