Nature and Structure of PhD Studies in Architecture : The case of the French-speaking community of Belgium OLIVIER MASSON WORKSHOP ON DOCTORAL EDUCATION

Nature and Structure of PhD Studies in Architecture :The case of the French-speaking community of Belgium

OLIVIER MASSON

WORKSHOP ON DOCTORAL EDUCATION IN ARCHITECTUREISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY / FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE

28-29th of November 2011

Two major linguistic communities who finance education and research.

WORKSHOP ON DOCTORAL EDUCATION IN ARCHITECTURE O.MASSON / UCL / LOCI

1. BELGIUM

2. BELGIUM : Architectural Teaching and Research

Two distinct curricula prepare students for architectural practice :- Architect (Bachelor + Master)- Engineer-Architect (Bachelor + Master) – an entrance exam in mathematics

Until 2010 :Architecture degrees were conferred by "Higher Institutes of Architecture" (ISA in French)Engineer-Architect degrees were conferred by the universities.The Higher Institutes of Architecture had no mandate for research and were considered to be exclusively oriented toward "professional education", whereas the universities could prepare students for both professional and research careers.

Since 2010 :Recent legislation has put these two curricula on a more equal footing. Universities and Higher Institutes are now equally responsible for both teaching and research in Architecture.


2. BELGIUM : Architectural Teaching and Research

A unique case in Belgium : A department of architecture leaving the Faculty of Applied Science to form, with the architects, a new faculty : LOCIFaculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, Urban Planning.

Three sites : Brussels and Tournai (architects) + Louvain-la-Neuve (Engineer-Architect)

A vice-dean for research : Jean Stillemans

Research historically in Louvain-la-Neuve :

125 students5 full-time teachers + part-time teachers coming from the professionnal sector


A complex combination of Academies (3) and Universities (6)


3. THE FRENCH SPEAKING COMMUNITY (FSC) (A.K.A. FEDERATION WALLONIA-BRUSSELS)

4. FSC : PhD PROGRAMS

In 2004, a legal structure of doctoral training common to all doctoral studies in French-speaking Belgium was implemented.

180 total credits (or ECTS ; 1 credit = 25 hours) are required for all doctoral candidates.

Within the context of the Louvain Academy, 1/3 or 60 credits are interpreted as consisting of :

- 40 credits devoted to research training and scholarly communication (advanced seminars, active or passive participation in conferences or other scientific meetings, writing articles). - 20 credits for the formal evaluation of progress toward the doctorate :1 / a preliminary doctoral examination (12 to 24 months after enrollment in doctoral studies),2 / the private defense of the thesis (limited to members of the official jury), 3 / the public defense (lecture open to the general public)


5. FSC : PhD ORGANISATION

(extract from La recherche en architecture, Bernard Wittevrongel, Jean Stillemans, in ARCHITECTURES, WALLONIE-BRUXELLES #0 INVENTORIES 2005-2010)

FNRS : 21 graduate colleges and among them, 1 graduate college in the art of building and town and country planning.

In this doctoral college, 2 thematic doctoral schools (graduate schools) are organized :

Territorial development This thematic school centers its research work around the study of interactions between

evolving spatial structures and all of the economic, social, cultural and environmental processes that contribute, in a diversified and plural manner, to the production of the conditions of territorial change.

Architecture, town and country planning, architectural and urban engineeringThis thematic school defines its field of research as all those techniques and instruments that

allow territories to be collectively and individually inhabited, at all relevant scales of investigation.


6. FSC : RESEARCH TOPICS

As concerns the French Community (extract from La recherche en architecture, Bernard Wittevrongel, Jean Stillemans, in ARCHITECTURES, WALLONIE-BRUXELLES #0 INVENTORIES 2005-2010)

- Architecture understood both as discipline and as an artefact.This type of research tends to call into question the field of architecture in order to better define it. This research talks about architectural space, theories, ethics and aesthetics .

- Town and country planning, landscape and territorial development.This research relates to the territory in its wider sense. This field has a multi-disciplinary base.

- The design process linked to modelling.This research is found in the particular field of design and the relationship that sets in

between representation, modelling and architectural design.- Technology and structures.

This research covers both general questions linked to the structure, the shell, the relationship between architecture and its infrastructure. Furthermore, the status of the materials and of the structure in the design process is questioned. - History and heritage.

Issues linked to the preservation of heritage alongside typological studies and monographs of structures.


7. UCL : HOW DOES EDUCATION PREPARE TO RESEARCH ?

The structure of the Engineer-Architect program at the University of Louvain

Critical construction of subjectivity :

Pensée structurée(aliste) :- linguistique de Saussure et Jakobson- anthropologie de Lévi-Strauss, Leroi-Gourhan- psychanalyse de Lacan- philosophie de Platon à Badiou- sociologie de Bourdieux- théorie de la médiation de Jean Gagnepain

+ a seminar called : Introduction to research


Research

Propositions

Syntheses

Abstract Concrete

Research

Critical construction of subjectivity

8. UCL : FINANCING RESEARCH

4 kinds of financing :

- External research contracts = answers to pre-determined questions

- Scholarships : FNRS, FRIA, FSR, PRfB = competition

- Assistants (teaching and research, mainly 1/2) : relatively great freedom in the choice of subject.

- Personnal

The freedom of choice of research subjects varies according to the financing body.


9. UCL : PhD PROGRAM AND SUPERVISION

180 credits (as in the FSC)

Organization depends of the number of student and means

1 PhD supervisor and 2 PhD assistant form the committee of supervision

Incomes 1X 835 € + 32 € every other year

Incomes for the Bachelor and the Master = 835 €/year


10. UCL : HISTORY AND ORGANISATION OF ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH

The first PhD in the Engineer-Architect field was conferred in 1988.The first PhD in the Architecture and Urbanism field was conferred in 1992.

Frequency : More or less one per year from 1990 until 2000. Since 2000, 3 per year.

Structures : 2 large research teams (20-25 people) :Architecture et ClimatCREAT Centre d’études en aménagement du territoire

Flexible structures :Structures & TechnologiesHabitat & DéveloppementLAA Laboratoire Analyses Architectures

Around 70 researchers in all/ 20 PhD’s students


11. UCL : RESEARCH TOPICS

According to Jean Stillemans, Vice-Dean for research :

- Objective technical conditions of dwelling- Urban and territorial structures : analyses and developments- Architectural structures : analyses, composition, conditions of production


12. UCL : MAIN ISSUES FOR THE FUTURE

Organizational and strategic issue : - Incorporate the architects coming from the previous system of Higher Institutes, who have not traditionally been mandated for research. Future initiatives must take advantage of their skills and potential. - Organize groups of research in architectural theory in order to be more competitive for research grants. The era of isolated pioneers is at an end.- Improve the possibilities for publication and recognition of research quality.- Place for ‘senior’ researcher

Epistemological issues :- How do we search as architect ? (what kind of topic ? Search on architecture, for architecture, by architecture ? What do we do, what do we produce ?,…) - Accumulate a collection of exemplary doctoral theses. Develop more reliable research methods (when does a research finish ?)- Better define both the autonomy of architecture and the trans-disciplinarity of its research.- Research by design (how and under what conditions?)

Themes shared by the Graduate school and the AEEA.

Thank you, teşekkür ederim


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Nature and Structure of PhD Studies in Architecture : The case of the French-speaking community of Belgium OLIVIER MASSON WORKSHOP ON DOCTORAL EDUCATION