Andrew Levitt
This winter, the community at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, where I studied in the 1990s, is mourning influential Professor Emeritus Andrew Levitt, who passed away on November 7.
Levitt was a beloved design studio leader, but also worked as a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist. The meeting of these seemingly disparate realms is highlighted in his two books, The Inner Studio (2008) and Listening to Design (2018). The former asks what the modern understanding of the psyche can teach designers, while the latter considers design as a kind of therapeutic process in itself. Both books encourage designers to explore, validate, and investigate their inner worlds as an essential aspect to their work in shaping the outer world. ?It may seem odd to suggest that self-knowledge needs to become an integral part of a designer?s education,? Levitt writes. ?Schools make every investment in the outer world [?] but they do not begin to address the deeper strata of conscious and unconscious longings, needs, emotions, and desires that influence decision-makers and affect decision making. I have come to believe that the idea of declaring the role played by the psyche in the creation of the built world is the best way to guide architectural know-how and heal the environment.?
For Levitt, learning how to face design problems?rather than how to solve them?was essential. He urged students to cultivate awareness of both the inner and outer forces that shape their des...