Pathology the Beginning of Architectural Education in the Faculty of Fine Arts:From the Entrance of E’cole des Beaux-Arts System until 1967

The primary goal of this research is pathologic studying of the beginning of architectural education in Iran which is inspired by E’cole des Beaux-Arts System. This research believes that such studying can help to recognize the current situation and programming for promoting architectural education. The main questions of this research are: was applying the defined system inspired by E’cole des Beaux-Arts as a non-native method a right decision? What were the positive and negative effects of this application on architectural education in Iran? The research method is an interpretive-historical approach. The pathological process of the research is based on three main steps:The first step includes the primary recognition of the system, extracting and analyzing the five bases of the system and introducing the main positive and negative aspects of the system in this regard. The five main bases of the system were the educational program, atelier system, professors, judgment method and exhibition. The positive and negative aspects are organized in such categories. The main positive aspects of the system are considering the artistic aspects, adaptability of the education period according to the student ability, the full-time presence in atelier, the interaction of junior and senior students, the vitality of the atelier space, defining a personal zone for every student, the competitive space between ateliers, the professional experiences of the professors, the exclusive method of every professor, the consultative method of judgment, the anonymous judgment of the projects, providing a time for the exhibition of the projects, the possibility of the public criticism of the projects, paying attention to vernacular architecture through periodical traveling and connection to society needs by technical office. The main negative aspects of the system are emphasis on the formal aspects of the projects, the interruption between theoretical and practical courses, over-emphasis on artistic aspects, absence of right of students for changing atelier, induction of completion instead of educating, high impact of the professor’s taste on each atelier’s projects, insufficient supervision on student’s educational process, lack of specific criteria for judgment, non-allocation of enough time to judge projects, disregard for social and cultural context of design, disregarding the analytical and conceptual aspects of indigenous architecture and lack of relationship between educational issues and Iranian culture and issues. The second step is the pathological stage which includes rooting the problems through external, transitional and internal pathology. The final step is the conclusion. The main results of the research show that the inspiration of E’cole des Beaux-Arts System as a non-native program was inevitable according to the global evolutions toward modernism and the need for new buildings and functions. But it was necessary to consider a mechanism to adapt the system with the context situation which was neglected. Besides, regarding the evolution occurred in the system resulting in the current situation, the positive points of the system are weakened and some of the negative points are still trackable. The final results also propose some suggestions regarding revitalizing the strong points and resolution of weaknesses in the current system