Reinforcing Social Aspects of Architecture Education: An Examination of the Iranian B-Arch Curriculum in Terms of the Science, Technology, Society (STS) Programme

Background and objectives: Architecture is closely linked to society, and architectural education plays a crucial role in raising awareness and understanding of social issues among architects. The ‘Science/Technology/Society’ (STS) programme is gaining popularity in many leading universities worldwide as a complementary educational programme. Its objective is to educate professionals in various fields about the socio-technological aspects of their knowledge. Studies in this field highlight how a deeper understanding of various sciences and society is essential for teaching students in the technological age. Next-generation students here are expected to examine information, understand the connection between sciences in their daily lives, and recognise that scientific endeavours are actually guided by social values. This study aims, therefore, to examine STS mechanisms whilst also investigating how social aspects are taught in Iran’s architectural undergraduate programme and identify the available opportunities in STS.
 
Materials and Methods: Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were chosen for this study by virtue of their more comprehensive programmes and the availability of their detailed course descriptions. The STS at Stanford adopts a social-oriented approach, whilst MIT’s follows a socio-historical one. Reviewing these two programmes, efforts are made here to analyse the STS mechanisms and contemplate on how the social is taught in Iran’s undergraduate architectural education, whilst opportunities available in Stanford and MIT programmes are also identified.
 
Results and Conclusion: The findings of this research demonstrate that of the three categories identifiable in these universities’ programmes, namely knowledge, environmental perception, and application, STS places greater emphasis on the first two, and that this can be utilised to strengthen social concepts in Iran’s architectural education by focusing on the third. In response, the aim here is to enhance the knowledge and perception stages based on STS concepts, and thereby offering the knowledge-perception-application process a more precise definition in the Iranian context. Based on concepts derived from the STS programme, more socially-oriented objectives and topics have been suggested for a series of courses in the Iranian curriculum, including Humans, Nature and Architecture, World Architecture, Islamic Architecture II, Design Studio II, III and V, as well as Final Design Studio.