TEACHING APPROACHES FOR THE LEARNING OF BUILDING STRUCTURES FOR THE DEGREE IN FUNDAMENTALS OF ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN: STATE OF THE ART
V. Compán, P. Pachón, C. Garduño
The Degree in Fundamentals of Architecture provides the foundational knowledge, principles, and tools necessary to train professionals capable of creating architectural projects that meet both aesthetic and technical requirements, as well as functional needs. It is the only degree that grants access to the qualifying Master's Degree in Architecture, enabling graduates to enter the workforce as employees, undertake professional work (except those reserved for regulated professions), and access public sector positions (EU, national, regional, and municipal) where a university graduate degree is required. However, specific professional attributions in the field of building structures require the completion of the qualifying Master's Degree in Architecture.
It seems evident that the teaching of Building Structures constitutes a fundamental part of the Degree in Fundamentals/Studies of Architecture offered by Spanish universities. However, substantial differences have been detected both in terms of teaching load and course content among the most prominent universities at the national level.
This paper proposes an analysis of the organization of structural education within the Degree in Fundamentals of Architecture at the national level in Spain, distinguishing between two levels of analysis.
At the first level of analysis, the paper aims to examine the temporal organization of Building Structures courses within the curriculum. This includes an examination of 11 Degree programs in Fundamentals/Studies of Architecture from public universities. This analysis seeks to determine the learning windows for structural engineering throughout the different courses of the curriculum.
At the second level of analysis, the paper proposes to compare the content of Building Structures courses from the most prominent national programs, including those at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the University of Seville, the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and the Polytechnic University of Barcelona.
Keywords: Architecture, Building Structures, Learning-Teaching design.