The many doors to architecture - Aarhus School of Architecture

03.12.2021

How does an Argentinian end up teaching architecture in Aarhus? For Carolina Dayer, the road to Denmark was everything but straight, and that is just how she prefers it.

Carolina Dayer, originally from the Mendoza region in Argentina, arrived in Denmark in 2016 to be a temporary lecturer at the Aarhus School of Architecture. Today she holds an Associate Professor position.

“When I first left Argentina, I was travelling to be abroad for six months in an exchange program, but I ended up staying in the United States for many years. When I arrived in Denmark, I came without knowing for how long I would stay, now I have been teaching at Studio 2A and realizing multiple research projects for five years” Carolina says.

And while Carolina is affiliated with Studio 2A, most of the students and staff at the Aarhus School of Architecture are familiar with her genuine interest in people and architecture, infectious smile and engaging demeanour. She is a vocal part of the faculty where she takes part in teaching and research as well as organizing talks, exhibitions and much more.

“I had been teaching for seven years when I arrived, but everything seemed different when I got to Denmark. I felt there was a genuine connection with the desire to imagine designs as architectures and landscapes to be inhabited. The students were engaged, curious and willing to take chances to explore architecture, and that is very inspiring”, Dayer says.

Pockets of curiosity

Now Carolina has been teaching for more than a decade, but what does it take to be a good teacher? You won’t get a straight answer if you ask her:

“In the West, we tend to be binary thinkers. Everything needs to have only one answer. But my experience is that different things, sometimes ambiguous, trigger people’s imagination and engagement with the work. Everybody has different pockets of curiosity – of things that interest them, that preoccupy them. In my opinion, a good teacher is willing to open as many doors to architecture as possible so these forms of curiosity and engagement can be explored, nurtured, questioned and deepened differently”, she says and continues:

“Virtue is in passion and possibility, and sometimes to set a single direction helps you achieve clear results. However, with the years I have learned that I prefer to work in a multidimensional pedagogical environment by thinking and re-thinking how architecture can be explored, what can it do, how it can address ongoing and new issues. I believe we do this very well with my colleagues at 2A. This intersectional approach to architecture can result in precise guidance without defining an outcome and it help us to address critically and creatively a range of important subjects. When students invest their own curiosity in the projects through making and re-making, that’s a step towards a good creative journey.”

”This does not mean that projects are personal or self-referential, all the opposite. Students have different dreams, some students are curious about the spiritual transformation of matter in Inuit culture, others are attracted to the pleasure of a fish-and-chip dish by the sea and the typology of this minor architecture. The range of human imagination is wonderful”.

The process of creating architecture can be very demanding, and it takes courage to put your thoughts on paper and show them to the world. That is one of the reasons why you have to be willing to give a part of yourself when working with students if you want a real connection.

“The students trust the school with five of some of the most critical years of their life. That is a big commitment and a leap of faith. As teachers, we need to acknowledge that trust with our full effort and attention. If we do it right, you will see the passion blossom within the students, and in my opinion, that is one of the most fulfilling experiences as a teacher, but also, one of the most fulfilling moments as a student, to love the work you engage with”, Carolina says.

The American Connection

Before arriving in Denmark, Carolina Dayer spent time at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center, Virginia Tech in Virginia. When working in an office for many years, she explains that she wanted to get a PhD in order to be a better architect.

“My world opened when I arrived there, and I found a depth in the field of architecture through academia that I didn’t find in office work. The Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center is an extraordinary place, and I was lucky to be surrounded by an even more special group of people who helped me understand what architecture can be and what it means to teach”, Dayer says.

One of the goals when working in an architecture school is to prepare the students to work in an office after graduation. Carolina worked in several offices in North America before coming to Denmark, and while she sees some differences between office work and academia, there are also many similarities.

“I often hear that there is a huge difference between schoolwork and the “real world” office work. I don’t always agree with that division. Working in an office can be very normative, sometimes lacking depth and reflection, but I think we should be better at building bridges between school and exemplary practices”, Carolina says and continues:

“I wished that more architecture offices were better at reflecting and at acknowledging the creative force and ingenuity of recently graduated architects. I hope that if we strengthen reflection and critical thinking through architecture in the school, our students will carry those habits with them later in their careers. I know many former students that have opened their own offices because they were able to develop a reflective and critical way of working in their school years. Today, their practices are participant of the evolving process of what our discipline can become. For similar reasons, some other students are key members of long-established practices. I find this extremely beautiful and important, but there is a lot more we can do.”

One of the connecting factors between schoolwork and working in an office is quite simple: architecture.

But how do we understand architecture? Again Carolina defaults to her opposition of a singular answer.

“We often hear that real architecture is about having buildings built, but to me, a drawing, a model are just as real as a building. Architecture exists in a common continuum of ideas, experiments and built demonstrations. So non-built architectures are just a valuable as those built. Many times, I wish school projects were the ones getting built! One thing that all good architecture has in common is that it moves you individually, but there is also a great sense of communing with everything that is and that is not present—time, place, beauty, labor, an insignificant story, an important event.. You can feel a sense of goodness, of joy, of purpose or of repair”, Carolina says and continues:

“I sometimes see the students get moved by the architecture they imagine. When it happens, they can’t stop working on their projects because they feel that energy and that commitment to the project of architecture in the large sense of the discipline. I always try to tell the students that they should focus on making things that really interest them, that mean something to them, and to contextualize them, situate them, examine them, criticize them, get closer. Investing time, effort and passion in things that matter to you can take you to fantastic discoveries and helps you resist ideologies that may mask your own desires. Of course, in the process of connection with your work there may be frustrations, things that don’t mean much, many uncertainties, but this is part of the process of finding something meaningful.”

A crucial part of imagining architecture is the act of drawing, which is something that Carolina focuses on in her teaching.

“The act of drawing is very powerful in my personal work and my work with students. Drawing is a place where you can connect things and disconnect them. It is like creating a brain that you can see and make public. Thoughts tend to be private, but I think that an important part of imagination is that at some point it has to reach a public state, a state where ideas can be discussed, perceived and examined, and drawing helps with that, the more one draws the more one sees” Carolina says.

When asked what she wished her students feel about their studies, Carolina takes a solid one minute break before answering:

“I would want them to feel that the school is a place for making and testing in a passionate and committed manner. I really wish that students can always feel that the school is a place for them to dream, to experiment and to critically discuss architecture. I would also wish that through their work and the work we as teachers offer, they can begin to discover something formative about what and who they want to eventually be as architects. And that they stay faithful to that in the most curious ways. I think that if schools of architecture can nurture students’ love for what the discipline can be and do, more practices will better implicate such commitment with environments, communities and general well-being.”

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