Abstract:

As one of the core objectives of 21st Century Education, developing critical thinking is achieved by a wide array of methods, particularized by area of application, such as education level and education domain. This paper aims to offer a deeper understanding of developing critical thinking in architectural higher education, illustrated by student projects developed at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Despite the general acceptance of this criterion as fundamental to the domain of architecture, there is a notable lack of consensus among teachers and students alike, on what exactly demonstrates critical thinking is and how it is properly evaluated in an objective manner. To this end, we investigate theoretical concepts, methods for developing and assessing critical thinking skills in architecture students. We investigate definitions of critical thinking and explore its association to complementary yet distinct skills of architectural education, such creative thinking, technical skills, attitudes, problem-solving skills, and background knowledge specific to the domain. We propose a causal-comparative study, focusing on samples of final year Diploma Projects. Designed as multifaceted, real-world problem-solving tasks, Diploma Projects advance complex critical discourses on architecture and urban planning, uncovering specific challenges related to a booming real-estate market in Cluj-Napoca and Romania in general. This paper underlines the importance of building up architectural critical thinking skills, in view of achieving more sustainable creative procedures of architectural and urban design both in architectural higher education as well as in the workforce.

Keywords:

Architectural education, critical thinking, reasoning, problem solving, 21st Century Skills, assessment of student learning.