About Us

Prospects

Department of Architecture Development Goals and Strategies:

Education View

International

From diverse feedback, we break through the limits drawn by the academic field and expand the scope of knowledge.

Architectural Thought

Sustainable

From the perspective of sustainable development, we create an opportunity to expand architectural thought and inspire a sentiment of care

Professional Development

Curricular

From a perspective of curricular integration, we reveal the myth of separation between professional education and work, and raise the level of professional virtue

Learning Evaluation

Standardized

From the perspective of competency, we adjust the weighting of learning evaluation processes results and return to the mission of education.

Learning Venues

Life-centered

From the perspective of service learning, we construct venues to experience heritage teaching and research, and create multifaceted learning.

Education Environment

Information Accessible

From the perspective of the information mediums, we commonly construct a collaborative platform of education and learning, and create access to diverse knowledge.

Organizational Operations

Stratified

From a perspective of stratified responsibility, we establish strategies and mechanisms for decision making and raise the level of administrative efficiency

International View of Education, Expanded Scope of Knowledge

In the 21st Century, in pursuing excellence in higher education, “innovative knowledge” is a must for information based economies. Students must face the future high-level competition of information based economies and so we use a life-centered, people-orientated, adaptive, technological, international view of education in pursing the type professional education excellence and innovation necessary for this. Globalization is a major trend of the 21st Century and an “international view for education” has become a focal point of change in the promotion of education. Furthermore, “cultivation of architecture professionals with broad fields of view and international understanding” is one of the main education goals of the Department. We believe that the most concrete method of education is real-life experience and to “learn by doing”, while simultaneously giving students knowledge of different cultures. Currently our goals of internationalization emphasize international education exchange cooperation to enrich students’ international competitiveness and elevate education standards. We aim to respond to internationalization as well as the effects and opportunities associated with Taiwan’s entrance into the WTO, with future development that takes into account both “localized” and “globalized” related issues. Considerations are given to conflicts that arise as a result of these two trends while heading in the direction of “sustainable environment” development. While responding to trends of international development and addressing society’s needs with respect to internationalization and diversification, students are encouraged to pursue related issues. Furthermore as they learn and add to the breadth and depth of their studies, students will expand their international perspectives in the field of architecture while strengthening their international competitiveness in architectural design.

Sustainable Thinking for Architecture, Inspired Sentiments of Care

Along with the rise in national economic strength and social prosperity, ecosystems have been disrupted and the natural environment has deteriorated, resulting in a clear and wide-spread phenomenon. Mankind’s “environment of existence” is attracting increased amounts of attention from architects. This is why looking at the environment from the perspective of sustainable building is the future road and direction of development for the architecture industry. The concept of “sustainable development” respects the boundaries of the environment and ecosystem. The burden that architects shoulder is now not merely to create visually aesthetic spaces; they must also address the existence of nature and man and the creation of systems that meld the two in an extended structure allowing for development of society and culture. Architectural design should, as a type of relatively complex living organism, develop and exist within the context of different climates, cultures, and technological environments. With the architectural concept of “sustainable development” as a starting point, professional leaders in architecture must also possess: broad bases of architectural knowledge and in-depth professional capabilities; technical integration capabilities; and good understandings of sustainable environments. Therefore, the concept of “sustainable development” is the Department’s overarching direction for development. During the time of their studies, expectations are to allow students to be able to nurture a passion towards architecture, gain a strong sense of direction towards the improvement and creation of architectural environments, and acquire the ability to perform on the job while making active contributions to the architecture industry. We also anticipate that they will get a good grasp on the world-wide trends of “information-based systems, globalization, and Green living”. And finally, we hope that they will strengthen their technological innovation while promoting the balanced development of culture and technology and create quality “productive and living environments”.

Curricular Professional Development, Better Professional Skills

Professional education traditionally adopts a model of “separate departments of education and separate fields of study”, and along with technological and economic development, this new generation now experiences a high degree of division; and so the knowledge of each department has continuously been divided into new fields of study. Furthermore, curriculum has become increasingly complex. This not only means that the knowledge leant by students is trivial, fragmented and unrelated but has also results in needless redundancies in curricular content. “Program-oriented Education” is a non-organized structure of study which focuses on “interdisciplinary horizontal knowledge integration”. It is built upon clearly independent department courses and provides a quality intermediary for “knowledge integration” which can reach education goals that are individualized and adapted to the learner’s special qualities. University education is intended to prepare students to face future career challenges; therefore, curricular planning should focus on a foundation of academic theory and provide the latest forward-looking professional knowledge or skills while paying attention to the system of low-level and high-level course articulation. Attention needs to be given to the integration of area-focused and interdisciplinary curriculum, looking at the feasibility of integration with new areas of study and the practicality in connecting with future careers. Curriculum planning should move towards the goal of integrated and instructive courses to encourage students to possess proactive learning motivations and abilities. Students’ advanced studies and future employment goals should set the curriculum markers and course planning goals and content should be organized accordingly. For this reason we review the appropriateness of course content and merge course content of similar nature, while offering innovative and integrated courses with hopes of integrating curricular and teaching resources and raising students competitiveness.

Standardized Learning Evaluations, Returning to the Educational Mission

Professional Architecture curriculum emphasizes that “students should engage in learning activities with an attitude focused on managing and solving problems; students learning should be autonomous and activities should be subjective.” Therefore, education activities adopt a subjective education and cooperative learning method to advance each of the various “capabilities”. In order to cultivate students’ professional “basic capabilities”, the Department has divided the course structure is into five areas of learning and each area is implements through its own learning activities. In turn the “basic capabilities” translate in to “competency index benchmarks”, which are represented in each area’s teaching materials, education and evaluations. The Department’s integrated curriculum of “architecture design” is also a type of “capability-oriented curriculum”. Basic capabilities are developed primarily through the use of appropriate “learning methods” which vary from the main teaching material of content-based curriculum. For this reason, the “architecture design” education model follows the idea that: “the education initiative belongs to the teacher and learning autonomy belongs to the student”. At the time of evaluation it is important that each of the various abilities are accounted for while also paying attention to the effectiveness of the evaluation. Therefore, we must establish a set of traceable education evaluation indexes and continue to improve the mechanisms, raise teaching quality and pursue the education mission.

Information-Accessible Education Environment, Create Diversity in Knowledge

n the past ten plus years, computers-aided architectural design has become popular and we understand that with access to information, designers can easily and accurately get a handle on design, alleviating the laborious manual methods of production and providing those who have stakes in the design with an effective tool for communication. Furthermore, architecture design is an operation involving a major base of architectural knowledge; and so, through full integration with information technology, communication between various users can be facilitated – user to user, computer to computer – and possibly stimulate and increase the creative capabilities of the designer. We hope that integration between computers and information technology can provide a new pathway for design and strengthen the mechanisms, aesthetics, technologies, economies and humanities related factors of traditional architecture design education, allowing for the “information intermediary” to become the greatest aid in architecture design. At the same time, though Internet education has offered some blows and challenges to the traditional education method, it has also provided education with a rich source of and application pipeline for information. Computers and the Internet have broken through barriers of time and space, not only influencing lives, but also impacting learning patterns. With the support of the Internet, education can function as a systematized teaching and learning activity. For education, through mediums of technology, teachers and students can be connected and both sides can be provided with a means of communication which allows for interaction to take place between teachers, teaching materials and students and meet the intended goals of education while allowing students to adjust their own learning progress according to individual learning capabilities. Furthermore, through the Internet it becomes easier to establish diversified knowledge allowing students to learn without limits to locale.

Life-Centered Learning Venues, Creation of Multifaceted Learning

In the 21st Century, an era of rapid change, our work, lives, career development, community relationships, etc., all must have a new way of thinking and a new field of vision. The nature of education and the method of implementation also require coordination with future needs and effective methods that can produce a new vision. University education should assist students in acquiring the capability to reflect on individual, self-development; connecting service learning with life and melding them together. Only then will students develop their potentials and be led to pursue individual growth. Because of the democratic and pluralist developments in Taiwan’s society, as well as the infusion of individualistic though, this era’s younger generation has seemingly formed its own sub-culture: “no investment in self, no effort in work, no gratitude to others and no appreciation for what they have”. We emphasize educating students in character, attitude and morals, to strengthen their service learning ability and to deeply implant students with competitiveness for their futures. Service learning has become an important issue related to the education and social development in recent years; it is also a type of service that emphasizes factors of learning. It involves planned service activities and through the process of structured reflection aimed at meeting the needs of those being served and promoting the development of the one serving. Simply stated, it is “learning by doing”. Also, hopes are that participants, through the process of engaging in service learning, will have an opportunity to pursue a type of sublime, forward-moving and touching experience in their lives; to reflect, to learn and to grow.

Stratified Organizational Operations, More Efficient Organization

Organizational restructuring signifies a rethinking of organizational operations and structures to re-examine issues surrounding the organizational models, structures, budgets and resource allocation as to adapt to the dramatic changes experienced by external environments. In line with a concept of stratified organization management for “policy resolutions” and “affairs decisions”, the Department and Faculty administrative organization structure is adjusted and separated into “policy” and “affairs” related work. Furthermore, a standardized management mechanism is constructed to raise the level of efficiency. The Department Affairs Board is organized under “policy resolution” and each function of the committee is set up according to the principle of “stratified authorization”. Each committee is responsible to the Department Affairs Board or the Department Director and must deliberate the planning of teaching, counseling, research and other related items, supplying the Department Affairs Board with resolutions or the Department Director with advice. The Department Director is the “head of affairs decisions” and the administrative staff undertakes the responsibility of affairs related work. Furthermore, they work to complete each item of the Charter and organizational operations while pursuing continuous improvements in sophistication and the quality of education.