Student Guidance

This is a serious question to be explored by people who are in positions of guiding students – What is the role of Teacher in today’s times? In today’s times – I mean an environment which offers plenty of resources of information gathering, assimilation, experimentation, trials and opportunities. An environment, wherein the old world order of control, hierarchy, stability, feelings, beliefs, appropriateness seem to be turning upside down. An environment, wherein the Teacher can’t claim any ultimate authority to deliver knowledge to the students and can’t expect students to agree to what He/She believes to be true. An environment, wherein significant issues need rethinking by all of mankind and which means, the Teacher may not know anything better than the students themselves! In such a scenario, what does Teacher-Student relation mean? What should we be concerned about while guiding students? This brings us to those questions that seem extremely important to be explored by the Teacher – for, that is what will define the nature of knowledge creation and expressing wherein the Teacher AND the students are involved.

My observations come from the point of view of helping students to conceive design solutions. Over the period of time, a proper approach to guidance seems how do you make a student ‘think’ on his/her own and how does that make them aware of fundamental values which are to be pursued in architecture (and life as an extension)?

The method involves constant questioning to whatever students deliver as an output and by the mode of question, revealing the influences, biases, prejudices, they carry with them. In this journey, it is hoped, that they become aware of something much more fundamental, intrinsic to human values of life and architecture. Thus, the journey is something like a ‘teamwork ‘to be taken together - hand in hand between the Teacher and the students. In this mutual discovery of knowledge, both get benefitted. Essentially, what we are concerned about is the revelation of a “pattern” inherent in a given phenomenon and our response to it – which may be said as complimentary to the pattern or an extension to the pattern or a change in the pattern. Hence our design expression is supposed to respond to long term repercussions.

As people dealing with ‘space,’ can we ask students questions that will make them realize following attributes that they need to respond to:

(1)    Change – No space is permanent. People change, time changes, technology changes and environment changes. That makes space extremely dynamic as a phenomenon. Hence, can we make students grapple with the reality of ‘change’ – what is changing and what seems constant? What is superfluous in design and what is necessarily to be done? How is something right or wrong? How does one decide that…herein we are referring to the idea of context and its relevance in design. All issues of novelty, sameness etc can be addressed here.

(2)    Impermanence – Since everything is bound to change, we are required to embrace the idea of impermanence – in life, relationships, and therefore space conception and perceptions. What we may think would work for the time being, may not be so with the passage of Time. Herein again comes the importance of ‘History’, which according to Indian concepts, is NOT a frozen phenomenon, but a pattern of relationships that recur in the present and the future. Or a pattern of relationships occurring in the past that may hint at conceiving an appropriate response to contemporary times. Can we therefore, attempt to make students learn history as a pattern (and not a frozen fact)? Can we make them realize that past is the seed of the present, which in turn will be a seed of the future? Can we therefore, make them more responsible to this continuum of life?

(3)    Considering above values, we may prompt students to gain spatial attributes that signify multiplicity of functions, multiuse, adaptive, flexible, layered, communal, interactive, social, democratic, inclusive, and empathetic and so on. Can their designs address these values?

(4)    Empathy – In the broadest sense, empathy entails to acknowledge the dependence of ‘you’ with the ‘other’ (‘other’ = climate/ flora/fauna/ people/ Time). It means to go beyond your self interests and to include the compulsions of sustenance exercised by all. In its purest state – it is all about love, hope, compassion and faith.

A continuous effort needs to be undertaken by the Teacher to make space for these values to be nurtured in the students - so they pass on to the next generations – we owe it to them. Summarily, we need to understand which architecture can be seen as the best demonstration of above values? It may occur in any time period, in any continent/ place and may be conceived by ordinary people or sophisticated experts.