Keep reading

As a practicing architect, do I need to pursue Master degree in architecture?

cloakroom-for-architecture:

“My friends keep on saying that taking post-graduate degree is going to waste your time if you want to be a practicing architect. They said what I need to do is just a working experience. More academic degree will not give you an added value to your practical skill or furthermore, it will not make you a better architect.”

             Such saying is frequently heard these days especially among young architects and fresh graduates in Jakarta. Actually, if the issue is about ‘wasting time’ we can easily counter the argument in two ways; 1. At present moment, quiet many prominent architects in the world have master degree and they makes great architecture. This condition proves that having higher degree does not hinder one from being an excellent architect. 2. The length of study of Master Degree is insignificant if we compare it to the length of experience that an architect should have to profess architectural practice. An addition of 1 or 2 years in the school is a minuscule period of time in the architect’s life. And it is already a common fact that many architects build their excellent works after 10 years or longer of practicing. In short, the argument is irrelevant. There is no relationship between having a higher academic degree and the length of time needed to become good practicing architect. We need both aspects to be a good architect. Both aspects; academic knowledge (build in the school) and practical skills (built by experience) are complimentary to each other. The first aspect nourishes our wisdom so we can practice with a good ethical manner. The latter drills our engineering and decision making skills so we can execute and construct our ideas into reality.

            Nevertheless, it is still important to clarify the reason why this quoted argument is irrelevant. This miss-perception occurs due to lack of awareness in the learning process. Therefore, understanding the learning process in the architecture school and the role of that learning in the practice are necessary for the one to have clarity and awareness about the benefit of school.

             Architect is a profession that plays a significant role in the development of our environment. Why? It is because architecture, as the product of this profession, always has strong impact to the environment where it stands. The impact can be due to many aspects such as economic, social, cultural, and even ethical ones. As mentioned by Alain de Botton in his BBC channel 4 documentary “The perfect home”, architect as a profession will always be about ethical matter due to its nature. Different to property developers that sell houses and buildings, what architect sells is actually the competency to shape dream and hope in a form of houses and buildings. Eko Prawoto, a prominent Indonesian Architect based in Yogyakarta, once explained that most of his clients use their life-long saving to have a land and a house.  This saving is an embodiment of their hope and dream. Therefore, according to Eko, architect has a serious responsibility in their works since the stake is not only about money but the future and life of their clients.

             What we can highlight from Eko and de Botton’s story is that the key parameter to measure the excellence of architectural practices lies on their responsibility. The excellence in architectural practices is not in the shape and the form but in the process of making the shape and the form. How thoughtful the architect when he plans the design expresses their responsibility to the project. And in this thoughtfulness, ethical judgment of an architect is measured.  

             So what is the correlation between the thoughtfulness, ethical judgment, and having Master Degree?  Thoughtfulness and a good ethical judgment come out from a clarity in thinking and critical understanding of what is architecture and why and how architecture works. Undergraduate education aims to mainly answer the ‘what’ question. Even though, of course, there are also discussions and debates on architectural discourses, as well as exercises in design skills and methods, the aims of these dialogues and exercises is to help students in clarifying the principle definition and understanding architecture. The undergraduate education focuses in establishing architecture as a subject. The postgraduate education takes on where the undergraduate education leaves off. Architecture as a subject is intentionally challenged to examine its territory. In other words, education in the master degree program aims to answer how architecture works in a certain ways and why it does so. The result of this education is an ability to set a good framework and perspective in examining architectural challenges and opportunities. In practical sense, this ability will provide people with intellectual instruments for making a critical appreciation towards architectural works and discourses. This is a core foundation of building an ethical judgment and thoughtful planning in a design process.

             Furthermore, the ethical judgement and thoughtfulness in a design process is the core foundation to be a competent architect. The lack of practical skills will always be easily filled by good collaborations. However, the lack of wisdom will lead to disasters. The danger of having excessive practical skills is the rise of high pride and the diminishing of critical reasoning. Consequently, the shift of objective might occur. Architecture becomes a shape and form-driven practice instead of serving the fundamental purpose of it as a place making tool.

            Wisdom tends to be a cliche word especially these days. In the fast pace world like today, everything seems to be fast, instant, and tangible particularly in the architecture industry. We need to have a good mindset to establish our positioning. Otherwise everything we do probably is only for the sake of doing without any clear objectives or even worse, we actually don’t have any awareness of our doing. As the old proverb says “The road to hell is always paved with good intentions”.

            Nowadays what we must have is a way to make everything ‘moves’ slower; a way that provides us to think clearly and to act wisely. And the postgraduate education will provide us with this ability and skills. Thus, it is clear that pursuing a master degree does actually provide us a better path to be a good architect. Having only a slight longer experience (1 – 2 years) is not significant in the grand journey of mastering architecture. In conclusion, a belief that we’d better to spend 1-2 years of our time to work instead of pursuing higher formal education to be an excellent architect is totally a myth.

feeling like my old self again feels nice