02 Nov Pedagogy, Education in Design and Architecture – Smt. Manoramabai Mundle College of Architecture-old
Any creative result is possible if a creative stimulus is first introduced. A creative exercise precedes the actual design.
SMMCA is the first and only girl’s college of Architecture of Central India. Women’s education society was founded in 1932 with visionaries .The focus was very clear women’s emancipication through education.
n 1993 the department of architecture was founded with only two rooms at its disposal. From two rooms to the present day mighty edifice and around 1000 alumini, the journey along with the infrastructure developments of the world has been exciting.
The department of architecture was further elevated to the status of a college in 2008-09 after permission granted by the Council of Architecture, New Delhi and government of Maharashtra. SMMCA strives to reach global standards, keeping in pace with modernization without compromising essential characteristics of our tradition. SMMCA offers a safe, interactive and enriching environment for girls.
The institution emphasizes on developing creative attitude. Students are engaged in various creative thinking techniques throughout which are a pre requisite for a creative filed like architecture. Any creative result is possible if a creative stimulus is first introduced. A creative exercise precedes the actual design. SMMCA is dwelling on design pedagogy for some time now.
“Teaching design” is a very sensitive and subjective issue. Every individual teacher may have a subjective approach which would create confusion amongst the students. So, to have a cohesive approach design policy is a must.
The design policy focuses on:
Sequential development in the complexity of design issues dealt (Linear Progression)
Psychological truth that mind moves from known to not so known.
For course experimentation, experiential learning, pedagogy lies at the core.
But still how to teach, was an unanswered question. We wanted a framework which could suit our academic interests. And will formally have a base on education and its transmission in architecture.
All these concerns led a group of teachers and educationists from SMMCA work on formulating a course, where the architecture inputs could be integrated with inputs from field from education. The objective of course was to offer a professional course to architects who wished to be associated with teaching. M. Arch in Architecture Education was started in the 2007 to train the future teachers of architecture. The masters program is a huge success with almost 100 alumni now and almost 100 percent placement. Most of them are now teachers of architecture and a major chunk of them pursuing their doctoral research. There was a sure focus on higher order thinking skills.
For course experimentation, experiential learning, pedagogy lies at the core. All the M.Arch students conduct hands on and training on the students of B.Arch as a part of their curriculum. This gives a real time world experience of teaching and organizational strategies about how to prepare and deliver.
SMMCA believes that 1 trained teacher of architecture is equivalent to 10 untrained teachers. SMMCA also conducts teachers training program for other teachers through bodies like (NIASA) COA-TRC and independently. The workshops which focused on confidence building, teaching techniques, education, psychology, creativity, transmission of knowledge have yielded terrific result. The college has an IPR on the format of the training program for teachers and is a copyright property of the college.
SMMCA, has a active documentation cell which is a nodal agency for documentation heritage structures of Nagpur along with the Nagpur Muncipal Co-operation. To encourage research and publish relevant and original research work, the institute has started a research and publication cell MIMANSA. An extension activity of the college COWA (Consortium of Women Architects) is working as a guidance centre to deal with the issues faced by women architects and seeking solutions to it.
Women are essentially creative, passionate, dreamers and each one of them think differently.
Today we are a college of great repute. Students from SMMCA excel in all fields. May be as an atlier, a professional, a academican, a research scholar all. With our academic and research excellence our quest for contributing to creations and manifestations become insatiable. This resulted in starting another PG Course, M.Arch in Urban Design.
One of the prominent purpose of architecture is to improve the quality of built environment. And women designers are sure of making a contribution to same.
Women are essentially creative, passionate, dreamers and each one of them think differently. Also, an able administrators. Women are great communicators, have a power of imagination, manifestation and investigation. Instincts and multitasking are the forte. Women designers are careful in terms of details that’s their DNA.
The whole history of Mankind is mostly understood through architecture. Buildings are true reflections of the aspirations, attitudes and values of society. As designers and architects , it is big responsibility of handling the spaces for humans and have an impact on their behaviour and lives. It is an enforced need to understand the sensibilities of profession from all aspects.
Design cell and consultancy cell of the college is one medium to cater to these sensibilities. It is an activity of the institution with an aim to provide students and faculty to deal with live projects. Exposure to a project right from its inscpetion gives a real picture of professional practice to students and to professionals who are in the academic domain of discipline. This is an attempt to give new perspectives towards teaching architecture. Amalgamating theory and practice assures professionals who are complete with knowledge and are the drivers of change.
Women’s Education Society’s
Smt. Manoramabai Mundle College of Architecture
DESIGN FIELD
B.Arch, M.Arch and Research Centre for Phd.
LOCATION
Nagpur, India
STUDIO NAME
SMMCA
ABOUT
Shibani Jain is the Founder and CEO of Baaya Design, a design studio and store, which focuses on innovation for interior spaces by leveraging artisanal skills. For 19 years, she has worked extensively with Indian arts and crafts at the grass-roots level and with various craft groups across the country. She also co-founded Catalysts for Social Action, an NGO dedicated to providing ho- listic care and rehabilitation to children in child-care institutions and orphanages.
