This paper operationalises the concept of organizational learning to explore the relationship between the profession of architecture in England and the commercial organizations in which architects work and, crucially, in which they learn. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) received its Royal Charter in 1834 and the profession has, as elsewhere in Europe, traditionally maintained a high status alongside law and medicine. Architecture is one of few professions in England that is controlled by statute; only those who have successfully completed a RIBA-approved course and finally registered with the Architects Registration Board (ARB) may call themselves an architect. This course takes around eight years, normally five of which are in university and three of which are on placements in architectural offices. Architects in England work in a very wide range of different types of organizations, from sole-trader firms to international companies with hundreds of employees. These organizations are the site of architects’ learning and development, but by properly placing them within their political and economic context, the development of the organizations themselves is made evident. These organizations have had to learn. This has led to discussion about how the profession might change to meet some of the demands to which these organizations have already had to adapt, including cross-professional collaboration and a more global market for services (RIBA, 2012). How this development of organizations affects or relates to the professional learning for architects in England is the focus for this paper, which addresses the following research questions:

• What is the relationship between the professional education of architects and the learning organizations in which they work in England?
• How does what student architects learn on placement reflect learning at an organizational level?

As celebrated by Donald Schön (1983), architectural education and training throughout Europe and America has been based around supported practice within the open-plan design-studio. While in university, students’ work is often assessed through the “crit” or the “jury” involving tutors and qualified architects observing the work and collectively reaching judgements within the studio space. Bergström (2014: 18) argues that the “studio is not just a dominant feature of the curriculum, but often provides the epistemological foundation for architecture as an academic discipline.” The design-studio is also the dominant structure and space for architectural firms in England and so the physical space of the studio within university architecture departments and architecture firms share as “a primary goal the achievement of unity among otherwise independent practitioners” (Cuff, 1991: 154). This apparent unity of purpose may appear to bridge what Roth (2010, 41) has described as an ‘abyss’ between what is taught in educational institutions and what is required in workplaces more generally.

This study has, however, found a more nuanced relationship between professional formation and the profession itself because of the occasionally contradictory demands of architecture as a profession and the demands of architectural organizations, especially at a time of economic constraints following the economic crisis.

This paper investigates a microcosm of organizational learning within a profession and an industry at a time of significant change because of the global eceomic crisis, making its findings relevant beyond the particular boundaries of this individual case.

Bergström, A. (2014) Architecture and the Rise of Practice in Education. Architectural Theory Review 19 (1), pp.10-21. Cuff, D. (1991) Architecture: The Story of Practice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. RIBA (2012) Leading architecture: The RIBA’s Strategy 2012-2016. London: RIBA Roth, W. –M. (2010) Learning in Praxis, Learning for Praxis In S. Billett (Ed.) Learning Through Practice Models, Traditions, Orientations and Approaches (pp21-36). New York: Springer. Schön, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York: Basic Books.