ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to identify the characteristics of the traditional approach to design education by adopting two mechanisms that support one another. The first is based on analysing the critical texts that discuss the way in which architecture is approached in design education versus the way in which architecture is created in real life and the contextual constraints involved. The second is based on two decades of empirical studies conducted by the author to examine, scrutinise, and interrogate various aspects of contemporary design pedagogy. The chapter is structured in five main sections preceded by an introduction that traces the roots of the traditional approach; this is followed by some critical reflections. The first and second sections are devoted to an analytical discussion of the educational process of the École Des Beaux Arts, the Bauhaus, and the Vkhutems, as well as the characterisation of traditional design teaching methodology that adopts the practices of these models. This is coupled with a review of the criticism written in response to the dominance of these models. The third, fourth, and fifth sections examine different qualities of contemporary design pedagogy at global, regional, and local levels.
