Architecture's Afterlife | The Multisector Impact of an Architecture Degree

Almost 40% of architecture graduates choose not to practise as architects. Instead, by ‘leaving’ their chosen profession, this surprisingly large but vastly overlooked cohort are making significant contributions to a wide range of other sectors, from politics to videogame design, demonstrating that architectural training can be a pathway to roles, and even leadership opportunities, across a variety of other professions.

Architecture’s Afterlife is the first book to examine the sectors into which these graduates migrate, and to identify the transferable skills that are learned, but not always taught, in their degree programmes, and that prove most useful in their new careers.

The book – a result of a three-year pan-European study funded by Erasmus+ – provides a roadmap for increasing graduate employment, addressing skills shortages across all sectors and adapting curricula to changing professional landscapes. It is therefore essential reading for all those responsible for curriculum design and delivery in architecture and other disciplines, including deans, professors, postgraduate researchers and policy makers, as well as students and professionals seeking to expand their career prospects.

Dr Michela Barosio is a full time associate professor at the Department of Architecture and Design of the Politecnico di Torino. During 2018/19 she coordinated the reform of the Bachelor program in architecture at Politecnico. Michela is a chartered architect holding a Phd in Architecture and Building Design. She teaches both in undergraduate and in master program of Architecture in multidisciplinary Design Units and she’s currently supervising PhD dissertation. Her research is focused on three main axis: architectural education methods, parametric design and urban morphological regeneration of industrial dismantled areas. She has been engaged in many national and international research programs such as ‘Architecture-Market-Democracy. The evaluation of architectural quality as an issue: aesthetic criteria in programs for housing between market and democracy’ (2011–2013), or ‘Architecture and Places: local landscape valorisation between identity development and promotion. From “parish maps” to “territorial brands”’ (2010–2012). She actively participated in the EAAE education academy workshops since 2016 and she is currently a member of the EAAE Council.

Dag Boutsen is the dean of the KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture with campuses in Brussels and Ghent. Dag is a Belgian architect and has a lot of experience in co-creative design with projects in the Netherlands, France and Germany. His particular teamwork-experience has grown through 20 years of working with Lucien Kroll on numerous housing and school complexes developed through participatory workshops. The search for the right ‘spot’ for the discipline of architecture, as one among the numerous other university disciplines is what keeps Dag going since 2009: the societal position, the research setting as well as the educational point. As a dean of a Faculty of Architecture belonging to one of the oldest, most research-based and internationally very high ranked universities in Europe and beyond, he considers the construction of this suited spot as his main duty. Together with numerous colleagues of his Faculty, he has been involved in actions related to the EAAE or EAAE-topics, both directly and indirectly. PhD-by design, CA²Re-conferences, ADAPT-r, ARENA, non-written research output, eCAADe, experimental curricula, multi-campus education, nomadic schools, European exchange, overseas collaborations, international workshops, none of these are unfamiliar to Dag and his partners.

Andrea Ceko is an architectural worker, teaching and research assistant, and a Ph.D candidate at the Department of Architectural Design of the Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb. Apart from and prior to architectural studies, she earned BA degrees in Archaeology and Art History at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. She is a co-author of award-winning architecture and urban design competition projects in Croatia (Atelier Minerva) and the Netherlands (HOH Architecten), a member of
national and international collectives and initiatives involved in spatial practices with an interdisciplinary approach from below (Dragodid, Paesaggi Migranti) as well as national professional bodies (Croatian
Architects’ Association, Split Society of Architects). She researches architecture and territory in the Mediterranean and (post)socialist contexts, with a recent research focus on social (re)production of architecture and education. Andrea lives and works in Zagreb.

Dr Haydée De Loof is an educational researcher at the University of Antwerp. She obtained a PhD at the department of Training and Education Sciences at the Faculty of Social Sciences. She graduated as a psychologist from Ghent University, and the topic of motivation, interest, and behaviour in study choice and career trajectories has been a main interest ever since. She has adopted a quantitative approach in most
of her research topics. For her PhD, she focused on the effects of integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education on students’ knowledge, motivation, and further career aspirations. The research project STEM@School won the Best Research and Practice Award of EAPRIL 2017. Besides educational effectiveness studies, she has also conducted research on stimulating competences in informal out-of-the-classroom learning environments. For the Artifex project, she has been involved in the construction of a learning platform for teachers who are working in high-technological informal learning environments, such as Fablabs. Currently, an important area of research is the career trajectories and competences of professionals who have finished university education.

Dr Johan De Walsche is engineer-architect and associate professor in Architecture at the Faculty of Design Sciences of the University of Antwerp. He is head of the architecture programme, vice-chair of the faculty education board and member of the Henry van de Velde research group. His research interest focuses on architectural design as inquisitive practice, bridging design studies with architectural research methodology and educational philosophy. He pleads for a better understanding of academia and practice as distinct, but interrelated sites of knowledge production, and strives towards a more intrinsic entanglement of both. With the Interdisciplinary Studio for Territories in Transition (ISTT), he studies spatial transformations in building cultures in non-Western environments. Johan is a council member of EAAE (European Association of Architectural Education), and founding member and coordinator of the EAAE Education Academy. He is a founding member of ARENA, an international network for architectural research, where he is coordinating a series of research seminars on architectural design research (DR_SoM). Johan De Walsche has been scientific committee member and keynote speaker at several conferences, research seminars and workshops on architectural education, design and artistic research, and has been external examiner and visiting critic at several institutions.

Dr Santiago Gomes is an architect, Ph.D., and full-time Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture and Design of the Politecnico di Torino. Formed between the Atlantic and Mediterranean shores, he studied at the universities of Buenos Aires, Lisbon, and Turin. Since 2007 Santiago has been practicing with architect Sandra Giannini, with whom, in 2010, he founded Follow the Architect, an office active in restoration, housing, and urban regeneration projects. He has taught architectural and urban design since 2006 in bachelor’s and master’s degree programs at Politecnico di Torino. Since 2018, he has been faculty at Villard International Itinerant Design Seminar. Over the years, he has also been a tutor in
design workshops, lecturer, and invited critic at several architecture schools. Selected for the FI - Formación en Investigación program of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, he participated in the research project ‘Articulaciones Urbanas’ for the re-urbanisation of public and housing spaces of the slum ‘Villa 31’ in Buenos Aires. Since his education days, his practice has been articulated with civic engagement permeating the interests, positions, and work in support of communities and third-sector organisations, contributing, through the project, to the implementation of inclusive, caring, and sustainable processes.

Dr Harriet Harriss (RIBA, PFHEA, Ph.D., FRSA) is an award-winning educator, qualified architect, and the former Dean of the Pratt School of Architecture in Brooklyn, New York. Her teaching, research, and writing focus upon pioneering pedagogic models for design education and exploring the intersectional edge of social justice and the climate crisis theories and practices, themes that emerged from two of
her regarded texts, ‘Radical Pedagogies: Architectural Education & the British Tradition’ (2015) and ‘A Gendered Profession’ (2016). Dr. Harriss’ advocacy for diversity and inclusion within design education was
further recognized by Dezeen Magazine, who identified Dean Harriss as one of the Top Ten Champions for Women in Architecture and Design in 2019. Her 2020 publication, ‘Architects After Architecture’ won the
Annual Bates Prize for Architectural Media. Her recent and forthcoming books include, ‘Greta Magnusson Grossman. Modern Design from Sweden to California’ (Lund Humphries); ‘100 Women Architects’ (RIBA
publications); ‘Architectural Pedagogies of the Global South’ (Routledge Companion Series 2022); and ‘Working at the Intersection: The Architecture of the Post-Anthropocene’ (RIBA 2022). Combined, these
texts extrapolate upon her growing expertise in archival activism, climate crisis curriculum and diversity, equity and inclusion. Dr Harriss has argued that there can be ‘no social justice without climate justice,’ and
that, ‘the co-creation of a climate crisis curriculum is the most pressing imperative facing architectural education and practice.’

Roberta Marcaccio is an educator, an editor and a research and communication consultant. Her research on historical and emerging modes of practice informed the book ‘Architects After Architecture’ (Routledge,
2020) and is currently being supported by a Graham Foundation grant and a Research Publication Fellowship awarded by the Architectural Association. Roberta’s writings have featured in AA Files, Blueprint, and in the books: ‘The Last Grand Tour’ (Park Books, 2023); ‘Real Estates’ (Bedford Press, 2014) and ‘Erasmus Effect’ (Quodlibet, 2014). Most recently she coedited an issue of Architectural Design titled ‘The Business of Research’ (Wiley, 2019).

Dr Mia Roth-Cerina is an architect and professor at the Department of Architectural Design at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb, as well as a Council member of the European Association for Architectural Education since 2018. She has taught architectural design since 2001, served as a member of national and international professional, public and faculty bodies, engaged as guest critic and jury
member, written and exhibited on both her work and research interests which focus around architecture for education, architectural education and common space. She lead extracurricular workshops exploring new modalities in higher architectural education and held guest lectures or been a critic at architecture schools in Ljubljana, Split, Sarajevo, Politecnico di Milano, UPC Santiago, Mostar, Belgrade, the AA in London,
AEDES Berlin and others. Her practice is lead in partnership with Tonci Cerina, with whom she has won numerous architectural competitions. They have won major national awards, the Grand prix of the Novi
Sad Salon of Architecture, Second prize at the Balkan Architecture Biennale, BIGsee Grand Prix and have been nominated for Piranesi, Mies van der Rohe, and Dezeen and Architizer finalists, among others. In 2023 they curated the Croatian pavilion at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale.

Dr Carla Sentieri is an architect and associate professor of the Architectural Design Projects Department in Universitat Politecnica de Valencia. She completed her training in Urban planning at IUAV, Italy, with PhD in Housing at UPV. She has been teaching architecture and urban design at undergraduate and postgraduate levels since 2001. She coordinates the ICAPA Educational Innovation Group. Carla´s current
research is concerned with inclusive and sustainable design of the built environment, housing and neighbourhoods. Her global research is structured around: sustainable design of the built environment, the process of learning through the architectural design project and childhood and their learning environments. She has participated in 6 research projects worldwide. She is a member of the Colegio Oficial de
Arquitectos de Valencia (COACV) and representative of the ETSA (UPV) in the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE). She has worked as an architect for 20 years and obtained recognition at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2000, the Architecture Awards of COACV and COAIB.

Dr Neal Shasore is Head of School and Chief Executive of the London School of Architecture. He joined the school following a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at Liverpool School of Architecture and a
Departmental Lectureship in Art History at the University of Oxford. He is particularly passionate about diversifying architectural education, heritage and practice. An architectural historian by training, his research and writing has primarily focussed on architectural culture in Britain and the Empire in the first half of the twentieth century and this critical perspective informs his own pedagogy and practice. His first book
Designs on Democracy: Architecture and the Public in Interwar London was published by Oxford University Press in 2022. He is a Trustee of the Architectural Heritage Fund and the Twentieth Century (C20) Society.

Dr Federica Vannucchi is an architect, architecture historian, and Director of the Pratt Rome Program. Her scholarly interests include Italian modern architecture, the global history of architectural pedagogy,
architectural exhibitions, international relations and colonialism, and architecture engagement with communities. She is the author of ‘The Human Body as Space of Diplomacy: Studi sulle Proporzioni at
the 1951 IX Milan Triennale’ in Italian Imprints on Twentieth Century Architecture (Bloomsbury, 2022); ‘In Search of A New Visual Vocabulary: The University of Architecture of Florence (1964-69)’ in Radical
Pedagogies (MIT Press, 2022); ‘The 1968 XIV Triennale of Milan’ in Exhibit A: Exhibitions That Transformed Architecture (Phaidon Press, 2018); and ‘The Contested Subject: The Greater Number at the 1968 XIV Triennale of Milan’ in Exhibiting Architecture: A Paradox? (Actar, 2015). She has co-curated a number of design exhibitions, including Radical Pedagogies (2014), which was awarded a Special Mention at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, and Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979, first presented at the NAiM/Bureau Europe in Maastricht and then at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt am Main. She has worked in internationally known architectural offices
including Eisenman Architects in New York, where she co-designed the City of Culture of Santiago de Compostela in Spain and the Murder Jews of Europe in Berlin. She holds a PhD in Architecture from Princeton and Master of Environmental Design from Yale and a Master of Architecture from the University of Florence.

Dr Hanne Van Reusel is an architect, and a lecturer and researcher at KU Leuven and University of Antwerp. As an ‘architect.e’, advocating for architecture to focus on quality of life and wellbeing. She is
a pragmatic activist committed to urban architectural design, the commons and sustainability. As a researcher, she developed a practice-based PhD in Architecture (KU Leuven and PoliTo). She is engaged in academia which covers topics such as altering urban architectural design practices, design-based research, and a feminist and broad perspective on architecture. As a practitioner, she approaches urban design within the context of sustainable transitions and focuses on the fundamental relation between people and their spatial environment - in transition. This practice manifests through artistic spatial interventions (x.hale collective) and consultancy work (Osmos Network) through which Hanne supports
architects, urbanist and public, private and community-oriented organisations in their desired shift towards greener and more liveable urban environments. As artistic and executive director for Stad en Architectuur,
Hanne invests in architecture culture in Flanders and beyond, nourishing the debate on the importance of qualitative and innovative architecture for the public and environmental good.