Bonjour Paris or Salaam Bombay?
As the summer approaches, the recruiting of architecture students to travel 'n learn programs in Europe intensifies.
As someone who, in every opportunity, pitches to directors of such programs that we should take the students to “other”, mainly east or south of the border places, I categorically get rejected as if offering dangerous dissent. To take the students away from the Eurocentric and highly developed world routes to far away places like African countries, culturally alien environments in Central Asia, India, Middle East and more overlooked places of architectural importance is not nearly as popular as leading a paid working/teaching vacation in the civilized world of European ancestry. The places to learn in this century, somewhat erroneously, do not include tougher locations.
Instead, sex and drugs and rock 'n roll in Rome, Greek Islands, Barcelona, London, Paris and other places of high end technology and Nordic cradles of civilizations usually take a priority. Of course, China is not to be missed since it is a place where the jobs are for the new graduates, even though soon it will be where the jobs “were” to the young architects similar to Dubai excursions which now dwindled and bad mouthing it, is already a norm.
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