ABSTRACT
The chapter analyses Jerzy Sołtan’s architectural teaching at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard in the United States. It gives an overall image of the teaching programme at the school and places Sołtan’s work in both design and theoretical parts of the curriculum. It discusses first the impact of his teaching by mapping the reach of his students both in America and worldwide. As case studies for the analysis of his teaching, the chapter considers his Master design studio modules, where he promoted a Socratic approach to teaching, working along with the students around their ideas, using specific drawing tools, giving much importance to the parti and the concept, and working on both plans and sections. The chapter illustrates also how he explained his own vision of modern architecture, the concept of "grassroots architecture" deeply enrooted in history, and the importance of Le Corbusier’s work through the analysis of theoretical seminar modules he taught at Harvard. Together, they illustrate how Sołtan’s educational legacy is part of modern immaterial heritage, where ideas and concepts are of core importance. This chapter is based mainly on a number of oral history interviews with his former students and Harvard alumni graduates.
