VCUQatar Presents Looking Beyond the Structure: Critical Thinking for Designers and Architect

The lecture, based on the book Looking Beyond the Structure, examines the role critical thinking plays in the design process. In this introduction to thinking philosophically about design, architect Dan Bucsescu and philosopher Michael Eng record their conversations about the relationship of the build environment and other forms of design to the culture in which they are created. The authors exchange their interpretations of selected readings about design theory and invite the reader to join in the discussion. Questions following each chapter’s reading stimulate critical thinking about philosophies and theories of design, and additional assignments encourage students and designers to express their critical thinking skills visually as well as verbally.

An architect, author and educator Professor Dan Bucsescu has been in private practice in New York since 1978. He studied architecture at the Institute of Architecture (Ion Mincu) in Bucharest, Romania, holds a B. of Arch from The City College of New York, and received a Master of Science in Environmental Psychology from University of Surrey, Guilford, England in 1976. Professor Bucsescu has been teaching at Pratt Institute since 1980. He served as the Director of Pratt International Summer Seminar for Architecture and Urban Design from 1992-2004. He has lectured and written about architectural education with a focus on grounding the pedagogical experience in theories of knowledge and philosophy of art.

‘Looking Beyond the Structure: Critical Thinking for Designers and Architects’ will be presented on 28 September at 6:00 PM at the atrium at VCUQatar. The lecture is open to the public.