Time as the Immaterial Structure of Architectural Education

Time is one of the lesser-addressed elements of architectural education, which fundamentally shapes its organizational structure, but also the values, culture, and motives stemming from the educational experience. Time has long been assigned meanings and roles in architectural education: as a framework, a limitation, a measurement, a commodity, a source, a route to follow, etc. The changing priorities, learning technologies, and philosophies exemplified by online architectural education and the increasing commodification of time in educational establishments have raised the importance of re-evaluating the often-invisible time-bound practices of architectural pedagogies. In this context, this paper aims to briefly review the roles of time in the explicit and hidden curriculum to structure and shape the culture of architectural learning via a range of formal and informal educational practices, from pre-institutional traditions to influential nineteenth and twentieth-century models, and lastly some twenty-first-century cases. The selected practices present an array of internalized temporal practices and organizations still visible in architectural education today. This brief review of architectural pedagogy from the lens of time puts into focus the immaterial structure of architectural education and time-bound elements that characterize the formation of the architect. Through examples, it is aimed to discuss these temporally inscribed pedagogical motives and conventions from the past and present to reflect on the potential of time as an active and critical agent of architectural education.