Architecture Education in Malaysia: Antecedent or Traditional Inheritance Reprisal Along the Pace of Globalization

Abstract

The quest for ready-employed graduates for the building industry is not only happening in Malaysia; instead, it has become a topic of Architecture schools worldwide. The dichotomy of the school of thought streams from the old scholars and those in the industry have always criticized each other on the basis that is rooted in education. Architectural pedagogy has never been a space of reflection; instead, it has constantly been a political act. The industry always presumed that the knowledge taught in school is regarded as theoretical, academic and implicit. The discourse is continuously on the action, reaction and interaction that is transferred effectively and efficiently through “learning by doing”. The appropriate architecture education syllabus and system of delivery for the discipline of Architecture developed quite late as in the 1930s. It improves along the lines of modernization and the changing trends in the world. This paper attempts to foster the quest for more intellectual discourse on Architecture education in Malaysia. The stakeholders in architecture education, namely the parents, industry, the ministry of education and even the Board of Architects, maintain the academic focus on the issues that benefit all. The dilemma of architecture both in practice and education, especially in Malaysia, needs to be addressed accordingly so that it is not saturated as the knowledge and architecture pedagogy is not maintained by a single body. Architecture discipline cannot spin the old wheels, and the progress of technology, as well as world revolutions, are closely related to architecture because architects are the medium of predicting the future through images.