The Client in Architectural Education: Three Interviews at M.I.T.

Abstract

In various guises, the problem of how the built environment touches people's lives has always been a critical issue in architecture. Earlier generations of architects wrote treatises about the proper role of architecture in society and the codes by which it should be practiced. Contemporary architects, while producing many manifestos dealing with architectural theory, have by contrast been strangely quiet about how best to educate young architects to design built environments with people in mind. How should those responsible for the education of architects undertake such a task, and what would they define as proper architectural theory and pedagogy for a more people-oriented architecture? The issue is not the undeniable ought and should of humane practice and a people-oriented design product. It is a question of what is meant by people and of how one can and should best prepare students to deal with them. If one is to address this question, then the concept of the client, with all its potential complexity, forms the linchpin of any discussion of people in architectural design. Without it, the issues of architectural design for people remain unrooted and abstract. Analysis necessitates a direct link between the process of design and social practice. That link, conceptually, is the client. In its history and etymology, the concept client to a great extent defines the problems facing contemporary architec-