French architect and Confluence Institute founder Odile Decq has called for entrepreneurial skills to be taught in architecture schools to help architects navigate the "broken" global economy.
Decq ? who founded her own Lyon architecture school two years ago ? said that architecture schools need to be doing more to support start-ups.
"We have to train the students to become architectural entrepreneurs," said the architect. "You have to give them skills and possibilities to understand about who they want to become. This is a different kind of education."
Speaking last night at a lecture hosted by the Architectural Review at the Roca London Gallery, Decq said she was struck by how many architecture schools are still lagging behind, when so many universities have launched business incubators. With many architecture students now failing to secure top jobs in firms or become fully qualified architects, she believes that outdated teaching methods need to be replaced to help students think more broadly about how they can get a foothold in the industry.
Odile Decq set up the Confluence Institute in 2014 to create a new model for architecture education
"When I was young, as an architect and a student, I was living in a world where progress, modernity, the future was in front of us and we were pushing, pushing that system to go further," said added. "I don't know if in the future we will still have architects as we are.&q...