Software, Skills, Licenses, Dependencies

​With the computerization of architecture practices in the past decades, the education of future architecture workers has changed fundamentally. It is taken for granted that students during their studies acquire skills  to use software applications — not least to be able to survive on the job market after their studies. The  software industry, in turn, considers architecture students as future licensees of complex and expensive software and aggressively lobbies the education sector: with free or discounted software licenses for students and lecturers, with workshops at universities, with the moderation of student forums, with certificates confirming software skills, etc. All too rarely however these, indeed problematic, dependencies between the education sector and the software industry are addressed. In this workshop, participants will make an attempt to map these dependencies and go after questions such as: To what extent should the acquisition of software skills be part of the architecture curriculum at all? If so, how can software skills can be integrated into studio culture critically? Eventually, what could be strategies to emancipate future  architecture workers from the software industry?

​This event will be facilitated by Klaus Platzgummer with Lennart Knospe, Yelda Özmen, Lisa Wessler, Jann Wiegand, and Lennart Wolff.

​Please note: This event may be recorded for internal purposes. The recording will not be made public but some of the imagery and content from this session may be used for academic publications, resources and other digital or print purposes. By attending this session you are consenting to being recorded. Please get in touch with an organizer if you would like to discuss this, or would like to maintain your anonymity.