On 27 February 2020, we met at the University of Zagreb for our second two-day Transnational Meeting. We discussed the Architecture’s Afterlife website, the questions to be included in the survey, and the various ways to disseminate the study. The University of Zagreb presented the preview of the website with its intentionally informal and friendly interface, a dynamic placement of information and its use of one typeface in serif and sans-serif which emphasizes the “afterlife” of architecture. The University of Antwerp and the Catholic University of Leuven presented some findings from the survey entitled “Architectural Education: A Progression Inquiry” conducted by the partners in 2018. Included in this early survey, the open-ended question “Which were the most important skills you have learned in your architectural education?” is central to the Architecture’s Afterlife study. Its answers were analyzed and categorized with the intention to reformulate a new multiple-choice question in the Architecture’s Afterlife survey. A first categorization of the skills mentioned in the answers included: creativity, research, endurance, teamwork, architectural thinking, and ability to doubt. Significantly, only half of the skills developed by architects during their school years are related to the discipline of architecture, while the other half are social or emotional skills. Although the professional qualifications for architects laid down by the European Commission (Directive 2005/36/EC) do not include social skills as learning outcomes, there is an “emotional intelligence” that the schools of architecture in Europe clearly teach and architects understand as essential. The Architecture’s Afterlife study intends to acknowledge and analyze in depth these skills to understand their role in today’s architecture practices and interdisciplinary value.

Second Transnational Meeting at the University of Zagreb_MINUTES.pdf