Roundtable organized by the EAHN executive committee.
Chairs:
Léa-Catherine Szacka, EAHN, University of Manchester
Fatma Tanış, EAHN, TU Delft
Speakers:
Florian Urban, EAHN, Glasgow School of Art
Hannah le Roux, University of Sheffield
Maarten Delbeke, ETH Zürich
Stephanie Dadour, ENSA Paris-Malaquais
Andrew Leach, University of Sydney
Mary McLeod, Columbia University
In Democracy and Education, John Dewey famously asserted that ‘knowledge of the past is the key to understanding the present.’ Yet within architectural education—situated in a discipline fundamentally oriented toward projection and transformation—the epistemological and pedagogical status of history remains persistently unstable. Rather than functioning as a fixed foundation, history occupies a contested space, oscillating between instrumentality, critical inquiry, and cultural legitimation.
Moreover, within the broader context of what has been described as a condition of global crisis—the entanglement of environmental, social, political, and economic instabilities—the role of architectural history in education demands renewed scrutiny. If architecture is increasingly called upon to respond to urgent and systemic challenges, what forms of historical knowledge remain relevant? Should the discipline continue to rely on inherited canons, or must it actively dismantle and reconfigure them? Or both? And to what extent can history serve not only as a seemingly autonomous repository of precedents but as an operative and critical tool for situating architectural practice within complex, intersecting temporalities?
In many schools around the world, recent curricular transformations, influenced by postcolonial, decolonial, and gender studies, have begun to address some of these questions by diversifying both content and perspectives. However, these shifts often unfold within institutional frameworks that impose significant constraints: limited curricular time, entrenched pedagogical models, and the inertia of established traditions. The resulting tension between expansion and selectivity raises fundamental questions about inclusion, relevance, and pedagogical responsibility. In parallel, the growing emphasis—particularly within European contexts—on adaptive reuse and building transformation calls for a reconsideration of history’s role in shaping not only design thinking but also heritage practices and professional ethics.
This roundtable proposes to engage these issues by creating a space for critical reflection on the teaching of architectural history today, in an age dominated by a state of crisis. Rather than seeking consensus, it aims to foreground the plurality of approaches, experiences, and institutional contexts that shape the discipline.
Every other year, the EAHN gathers architectural historians from all corners of Europe, America, and beyond. As most of us dedicate some large part of our time to teaching history to future architects, it seemed like this conference was a good place and time to raise the issues previously mentioned. With this in mind, we invited six colleagues – teaching in the UK, France, Australia, Switzerland and the US – to share a short statement reflecting on the current and future status of the teaching of architectural history within their institutions (with concrete examples of syllabi, learning objectives, teaching methods and traditions). Contributions may address pedagogical frameworks, course structures, or specific teaching practices—whether in lecture-based formats, seminars, studios, or through field-based learning such as excursions and site visits—and are encouraged to situate these within the different cycles of architectural education.
This roundtable is a part of the official program of the 9th EAHN Biennial Conference. For further information, please visit the conference website.