De la Controversia al Catalizador: Transformando el Aprendizaje Arquitectónico

Victoria  Farrow; Alona Martínez Pérez

doi:10.12795/astragalo.2025.i39.01

Authors

Victoria Farrow School of Arts, Design and Architecture De Montfort University, Leicester https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8085-9453
Alona Martínez Pérez School of Arts, Design and Architecture De Montfort University, Leicester

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12795/astragalo.2025.i39.01

Abstract

Architectural education is undergoing significant change. In the UK, the ARB and RIBA are replacing the traditional three‑stage system with a more flexible, competency‑based model, offering varied routes, early professional exposure and the use of artificial intelligence to shorten qualification time. This reform takes place amid financial precarity, rigid structures and a disconnect between teaching and research, as many tutors are practitioners rather than active scholars. Meanwhile, professional practice grapples with economic uncertainty, adoption of new technologies, pressure to deliver affordable housing and fee compression. The issue “BLURRING THE LINES | EXPLORING THE JUNCTIONS BETWEEN ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICEs” challenges the expectation that graduates emerge “fully ready” and calls for decolonising pedagogies, integrating sustainability, diversity, ethics and multidisciplinary collaboration. It urges a stronger connection between academia and practice through longitudinal research, digital skills, mental health awareness and business management. The closing question, “What will happen in the future?”, invites reflection on the role of education in addressing the profession’s challenges.

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Author Biographies

Victoria Farrow, School of Arts, Design and Architecture De Montfort University, Leicester

Victoria is an associate professor and subject lead in architecture, educator, designer and practicing architect with extensive experience in planning, facilities management, BIM, occupancy planning, visualization and interior design. Throughout her career she has forged links with institutions in the UK, United States and South Africa that have enabled her to teach and collaborate internationally. Recently she joined the board of “A Student’s Perspective,” a podcast highlighting the interior architecture community. In 2011 she co‑founded the Association of Architectural Educators (AAE), the first British association for architectural educators, and in 2013 she organised its inaugural conference and, with colleagues, launched the journal Charette, which remains the only architectural education publication in the UK. She continues to support these conferences as events director and member of the editorial committee. That same year she created the AAE‑Vectorworks scholarship programme, providing free software and funding to schools and academics. She has taught at the universities of Lincoln and Nottingham Trent in subjects spanning architecture, interior architecture, architectural technology, BIM, set design and theatre design. In 2014 she joined Birmingham City University as Course Leader for the BA in Architecture, became an associate professor and took on marketing, recruitment and curriculum duties, guiding the team through RIBA validation. There she founded the student‑run BIM in Birmingham conference series (2017‑2023), now internationally recognised. She is completing a doctorate on architectural pedagogy at Loughborough University and co‑authoring a book on precedent study for RIBA. A keen runner, she also created a sports shoe design course linking architecture, fashion, physiotherapy and sports science.

Alona Martínez Pérez, School of Arts, Design and Architecture De Montfort University, Leicester

Dr Alona Martinez Perez is a Senior Lecturer at the Leicester School of Architecture, De Montfort University. Originally from Spain (Bilbao, Basque Country) she trained as an architect in England and Scotland holding qualifications in both architecture and urban design. She has completed her PhD at the University of Sheffield with a scholarship award on the subject of “The Architecture of the Periphery” looking at the theory of the periphery in the European city, with a case study in Madrid. She won the PhD Conference bid for AHRA (Architecture and Humanities Research Association) at Plymouth University and has presented over 20 papers and conferences on peripheral issues. Previous roles include Lecturer in Architecture at Plymouth University (2013-2017) where she was MArch 1 Leader and Head of Subject for Professional Studies, Lecturer in Place making at the University of Ulster (2009-2013) where she was fully responsible for all urban design teaching in the MSc of Planning and Property Development, tutor for architecture at the University of Dundee and a Research Director at the Geddes Institute for the project of cities and regions. Dr Martinez Perez also worked in practice for nearly a decade in both England and Scotland for a number of public and private sector clients and companies on a number of prestigious project ranging from 100K to 40 million pounds in retail, hospitals, schools, hotels and master planning and continues to work as an architect in small projects. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK, and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Architecture and Urban Design, and a Master of Science in Urban Design from Edinburgh College of Art, and a degree of Architecture from Huddersfield University.