New Ideas, but 50 years old ~ an oxymoron?

 “In architecture, new ideas are at least 50 years old.”

This quote from Giancarlo De Carlo’s Architecture’s Public really stood out to me. Since my first year of architecture school, I hear about all of these different design solutions that we are told to incorporate into our projects not because WE want to, but because it SEEMS right. We sometimes make certain solutions and diagramming techniques fit into our initial ideas instead of using diagramming to influence our design. Students are changing their outlook and asking what their purpose is as a modern day student in architecture. We are asked for so much during our years in school, but are these deliverables structured in the correct ways? Which teaching methods should be passed off as new and which should be transformed into something truly new, is a fundamental question schools of architecture should be considering. Last semester we had the opportunity to design the Clemson Design Center Charleston and while studying the school’s premise and teaching methods, we found out there is an opportunity for much growth within the studios.