The Hidden Ego-Centric Approach in Architectural Education

Introduction

There has been a conflict for a long time about the field of application for the discipline of architecture and what is encountered in the education process. Encounters in these areas are in contradiction with each other in terms of self-thought at many points. Accordingly, the view on architecture is formed with certain classifications within itself. The definition of “architect”, which is perhaps clearer in the mind of the outside eye, may not be so definable for someone involved in this business. Losing the point of identification brings both positive and negative situations. These different situations are about the dilemma posed by the same title. For example, the ability to produce together with many disciplines determines the working potential and design power of the architect. This situation provides the architect with an endless definition of space as a subject. Therefore, the architect, who uses this power by filtering it efficiently, can include any kind of production in a potential positive area. In the opposite case, the same situation causes the infinite power to develop a selfish attitude and carries the subject to the highest position. This selfish attitude brings with it self-centred, egoistic psychology.

In addition, most definitions of architecture are based on how superior the architect is.

This diversity can be read in the definitions of architecture that Hasol (2019) conveyed through different disciplines. While Hegel (1770-1831) defines architecture as the mother of all arts, Frank Lloyd Wright also emphasizes the superiority of architecture by defining it as life in form. Pallasmaa (2011) also states that the task of architecture is to make visible how the world touches us. Thom Mayne defines architecture as a way of seeing, thinking and questioning our world and our place in it. Mayne's view of architecture is in such an important position that it allows one to discover oneself. On the other hand, Louis Kahn states that architecture creates a new world that can be perceived emotionally within a world. Kahn also emphasizes the comprehensive and multi-component nature of the design process, interpreting the unique space as almost a new world. Jacob Bakema defines architecture as a three-dimensional expression of behaviour by directly identifying with the integrity of behaviour and action. He sees it as an individual discovery, similar to Mayne's approach. Behaviour directs architecture, and architecture refers to behaviour. While the German architect and theorist Gottfried Semper states that architecture is an act of composition, he sees architecture as an order-building activity that enables human beings to face their place in the world (as cited in Hvattum, 2004). He says that the reconstruction of the cosmos goes through a search for an order in this way, and at this point, the responsibility of architects is to create an order at the micro-cosmic level.

As can be seen from the definitions, architecture has a more indefinable, experiential and contextual dimension beyond a pure act of building. Although it sometimes has an abstract and sometimes a concrete meaning within these various definitions, architecture has always been perceived as a reflection of a noble will or spirit, since the way of being of architecture is beyond a simple construction practice (Uluoğlu, 2012). Sometimes the main art is defined as a process intertwined with life and inseparable from it, sometimes as senses, sometimes as feelings, sometimes as self and intuitions, and sometimes as an unlimited phenomenon. This ambiguous wide area causes the architect to go to a definition like “we have control over everything” at the end of the learning processes that he cannot make sense of; from the outside, the architect finds himself a place in daily life with adjectives such as ambitious and egoistic.

From the first years of the education process, architect candidates are concerned about proving themselves. Initial approaches, attitudes and expectations may cause the student to engage in a problematic search. Instead of students can provide a positive approach to the discovery of the act of design, they complete their years as a competitive, ambitious, result and grade-oriented architect candidates. This situation manifests itself as a hidden problem reflected in many areas of the profession, after a learning environment that starts with problematic psychology and continues by becoming a “personality defence” instead of individual discovery.