Forms of Practice: Research-based Education in Studies of Practice

Where does constructed architecture come from? Which processes precede the final result? What does the architect’s role consist of and which are her central tasks? These are the kinds of questions that are raised by students of architecture on the course Forms of Practice at the School of Architecture in Copenhagen. In what follows, we will describe the didactic organisation of the course with a particular focus on the teaching of ethnographic methods, practice theory and case studies. As there is no tradition for these study methods at the Beaux-Arts inspired architectural educations in Denmark (Larsen 2008), we will as teachers reflect on the competences the students attain from engaging in the course as well as the potential pitfalls the course format may reveal.
Our aspiration with the following is to present the overall ideas behind a current course initiative, aiming to give students of architecture insights into the variety of architectural practice. It should not be considered as a research article as such, but rather as an explanatory essay.