Being and Becoming Architects in a Changing World

What does it mean to teach architects when the very ground of practice is continuously shifting beneath us? In this session, the UIA Architectural Education Commission Co-Directors Ashraf M. Salama and Selma Harrington present landmark findings from a body of work that has been quietly reshaping our understanding of global architectural education.

The session draws on the collaborative effort of the UIA EDUCOM membership (2023-2026), exemplified by the comprehensive Global Survey of Schools of Architecture, the Pilot Study of Architectural Education Systems, the forward-looking series of international webinars on Visions and Trends for the Future of Architectural Education, and the results of the 3rd edition of the UIA Award for Innovation in Architectural Education. It offers an unprecedented empirical and critical portrait of where architectural pedagogy stands at the global scale, and where it is failing to keep pace. UNESCO Advisor Jana Revedin joins to address the evolving relevance of the UNESCO-UIA Charter for Architectural Education, a foundational document whose ambitions are increasingly tested by the realities of fragmented curricula, technological disruption, and multiplying societal expectations. The session should not be seen as a progress report but a provocation. Can architectural education remain coherent without becoming conservative? Can it embrace transformation without losing disciplinary identity? And can the global community of educators move beyond local concerns to build a shared vision of architectural formation fit for a world in crisis? This session lays basic knowledge, confronts the contradictions, and opens a critical conversation that will carry though the next decade.