The big lie of architectural education

Last week I had the opportunity to visit a bucket list place of mine, @LasCatalinas in Costa Rica. This new community was conceived of by @charlesbrew and dates only to 2006 for the property acquisition. So in less than 20 years, his team has built what’s in the photos.

Simply put, the community is gorgeous. It’s humane, being largely car-free. It’s kid-friendly. It’s beautifully integrated into the hilly landscape.

But mostly what was on my mind is what this place tells me about the six years of architecture school I had, way back when….


What most non-architects don’t understand, and would find crazy, is that architecture school is mostly an exercise in ideological indoctrination.

Nearly every school in the US, and most in other countries, teaches an ideology that came out of the wreckage of WWI. It’s simply that we are in a new, modern era, and we can’t look to the past anymore. We are just can’t build buildings like our ancestors, nor should we. That’s the sum and substance of school, along with the notion that every individual is his or her own creative genius.

You think you’re going to school to learn how to make beautiful buildings, but you’re actually paying to become a cult member.