|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SCI-Arc Director discusses Architecture, Education, and their impact
Interview by Julie Taylor
Julie is a consultant to Sci Arc and contributor to v5
LOS ANGELES—Architect Neil M. Denari, the newly appointed director of the Southern California School of Architecture (SCI-Arc) discusses the unique characteristics of a school such as SCI-Arc, as well as its challenges ahead for its students and the profession. SCI-Arc was founded in 1972 as a school dedicated to exploring architecture as a fusion of aesthetic, social and cultural concerns. It is one of the foremost private institutes in the world for the study of architecture, design, and urban issues.
How would you characterize the spirit of SCI-Arc?
Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) was started in a nontraditional way. Essentially independent, it was based on an inherently challenging spirit and a conscious effort not to align with the prevailing ideologies — not even to agree to ordinary ways of doing things. The school has always been about ideas of progress and the frontier.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
How is SCI-Arc different from other schools?
SCI-Arc is a private institution with no university legislation. This fact differentiates us further. We can operate in a more mobile and spontaneous fashion. We can really develop our own structure for education. Of course we meet standards. But our sense of exploring subject matters in architecture and related subjects is much more fluid, and therefore powerful. We can make material constantly relevant and react to the latest changes in the world. We do not see ourselves as having to teach in the traditional, time-honored ways of architecture. We are open to experimenting. We are always investigating new ways of working and thinking. I think at other schools, the process is encumbered by the many layers of bureaucracy.
The best thing about SCI-Arc is the fact that it is an independent school. We have our own building and we can treat the building as though it is a project to be worked on. The students can feel that it is their space—it is their studio space. They are not showing up at the University of X to sit in a seat. SCI-Arc is a house, it is their house that they work on, operate, and manipulate. I do not know another school like SCI-Arc.
How does SCI-Arc prepare its students for the future?
Some might think, in a conservative sense, that if you pass your architectural exam and you get your license, then that license means you can protect the public health—you can build shelter and deal in a service. That’s the bottom-line competency of architecture. At SCI Arc, we reach way beyond the bottom line. We are training people to be more than just competent professionals—that’s all the University of X does, because they have to deal with traditions. We are teaching people to be able see things and design things and develop things that other people just don’t see. We understand that students have to get jobs, but in addition to teaching fundamental and bottom-line skills, we’re teaching students to design space and buildings and cities and objects in ways that are above and beyond what our culture asks for. We’re not teaching people to be capricious architects, but to go so far beyond the bottom line. In our profession we like to distinguish “building” from “architecture.” Building is competent stuff. Architecture is what we teach at SCI-Arc.
Next Page
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
