Wadiyar Centre for Architecture
Chamaraja Mohalla, Mysuru

Wadiyar Centre for Architecture (WCFA) is a College of Architecture located in the heart of Mysuru, the city long renowned as a centre for education. WCFA offers Bachelor of Architecture (B. Arch) degree course which is for a duration of 5 years.

The college is recognised by the ‘Council of Architecture’ New Delhi and is affiliated to ‘Visveswaraya Technological University’, Belgaum, Karnataka State.

The College is owned and managed by a team of practicing Architects and Consulting Engineers in collaboration with Educationalists who have established the country’s earliest educational institutions.

WCFA is a center for learning, providing wholesome environment and best resources to enable and empower students to emerge as sensitive and responsible Architects, contributing to creating an enriched built environment for the nation.

WCFA is a college of “Experiential Learning”. The curriculum is intelligently crafted to be learnt through a process of practical exploration. WCFA provides the students, rare and unique opportunity to learn straight from accomplished mentors, their expertise, which will broaden their perspective and deepen their understanding of the subject.

MISSION

“Humans, being endowed with the faculty of thought, reasoning and the attribute of emotion, have always strived since time immemorial to find an expression that defines their sphere of existence.
This sense of identity is strongly influenced by the immediate milieu of the time and place they find themselves in. A journey of exploration therein, culminates in a stream of expressions in all realms of human experience.”

WCFA is guided by an ideology that allows the student to emerge with a complete education in Architecture along with a deep-rooted knowledge of one’s own surroundings, social awareness, and grounding in cultural heritage, resulting in professionals who would be responsible leaders with ethical practice.

The task of Architecture is the creation of human environment. At WCFA, we adopt a pluralistic approach to teaching architecture that includes both theoretical and empirical approaches. Students have opportunities to become instinctively conscious in their understanding of the built environment through realisation of values, culture, technology and social behaviour.

The future of work practice is tending towards a rich scenario of diverse viewpoints and of collaboration. The student consciously is at times an individual and many a times, a collaborator in a group. The environs at WCFA allow the nurturing of the student to find their unique expression of thought leading to knowledge and action.

Beyond the university’s curriculum, WCFA offers opportunities through learning and pragmatic exploration of interrelated fields like music, dance, drama, literature, creative arts, political science, philosophy, economics and physical activities.

THE INITIATIVE

Wadiyar Centre for Architecture is a collaborative initiative of Design Foster Trust (DF), a trust formed by Architects and Engineers and Sri Jayachamaraja Urs Education Trust (SJUET), pioneers in the field of education in Karnataka.The common objective to offer quality education and to nurture responsible professionals brought the two trusts together to establish the College.

ACADEMICS
People are the most valuable resource of WCFA. The teaching faculty of WCFA consists of a group of Architecture educators, Artists, Urbanists, Social Anthropologists, Planners, Conservationists, Structural Engineers, Interior Designers, Writers, Theorists and Photographers, in addition to many practicing Architects who are passionate academicians and research enthusiasts.

The multi-disciplinary background of the faculty not only helps the students to perceive design through diverse viewpoints but also enables them to approach design comprehensively. The faculty members are encouraged to engage in architectural practice through the Design Cell of the College and also pursue research, which will bring practical and explorative orientation to teaching. The faculty is encouraged to bring integrated design methodology into their tuition. Academic discussions are encouraged between the faculty and also between the students across the classes to make learning a way of life on campus.

Core Ethos: ‘IDENTITY Rooted in Context’

WCFA believes strongly and encourages all its stakeholders to “Look Within” and discover the sense of ‘who one really is & can be, as an architect in India’, as academicians and as an Institution. Through experience and deliberations, the members recognise that in today’s global scenario, “it is only, ‘THE TRULY LOCAL’ work, rooted and committed to a specific context that relates effectively”.

The key academic objectives of WCFA are to build the

· Architect as a Craftsperson: looking at inherent local strengths & inclinations

· Architect engaging with the real & practical issues of Society around us

This would necessitate a style of working moving clearly between:

· Hands-on & practical engagement with a particular place / material

· Critical assessment looking at different parameters & overall context

Key Implementation Aspects in Pedagogy:

· Developing Liberal & Critical thinking

o Exposure to variety of contexts & disciplines, encouraging to develop ‘positions’

o Isolating a Design Issue and Evolving a narrative / story around it that leads Design

o Method: Study, Observe, Distil, Write and Discuss writings to bring out approaches

o Encourage DIVERSITY towards ‘possibilities’, hence giving WCFA & students AGILITY

· Equal importance to all subjects (not predominance of Space Design) – as an attitude by faculty – with emphasis on the practicality of each of them, encouraged by making / doing

· Primacy of Settlement Studies / Survey and locating the Design Opportunity in the Settlement as per the local needs, increasing in size/complexity with the maturity / ability of student

· Allow for intuitive exploration and guide / inquire post-facto, rather than base on instruction or rely excessively on teacher discussion and inclination

· Develop Faculty Strengths in distinct Streams of Subjects – Aesthetics & Skill-based, Thinking-based, Technology-based and Design (putting together)-based, encouraging Research while constantly stimulating with invited external expertise