H 1 · Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), England
DCMS encourages wide access and accessibility to the built environment as a whole. The Department focuses on developing local and community based education initiatives for learners at all levels. DCMS wishes to empower people of all ages to seek explanations for the reasons why their communities have developed over history in the way they have.
In exploring this issue, the Department was aware that the work on education undertaken in the architecture and built environment sector was not as developed other cultural sectors, such as museums and galleries and the arts.
In order to tackle this problem DCMS, which aims to develop a better appreciation of the value of good design and preserving the historic environment, realised that it needed to work in conjunction with DfES in order to promote the potential for learning about the built environment.
In December 2002 DCMS with DfES hosted a conference at Dulwich Picture Gallery, to discuss the potential for the built environment to be used as a learning resource. Following the success of the conference the Departments decided to explore the reasons why the built environment, despite its ubiquity, was not used more fully as a learning tool, and to offer ways forward for developing public confidence towards architecture and urban design. It was also recognised that improved public interest in the built environment could help to stem the skills shortage in the construction industry.
In 2003 Ministers appointed the Joint Advisory Committee on Built Environment Education (JACBEE) to examine the issues. JACBEE’s aim is to strengthen the partnership between DCMS and DfES to best support policy proposals for the built environment in its widest sense, and to include both the contemporary and historic environments. The committee has taken into account promoting the built environment as a community resource; how the built environment can deliver effective learning opportunities to enrich the curriculum; and identifying careers in the built environment. The committee has held direct discussions with teachers and head teachers, architects, educators, access/outreach advisors and IT specialists in order to debate the problems and opportunities that face built environment education.
DCMS and DfES are also developing a joint educational strategy for museums and galleries. In doing so they have discovered that many of the problems and opportunities encountered in this sector are duplicated in the built environment education sector.
Amore general aim of DCMS is to challenge traditional attitudes to architecture that cleave the built environment into two architectural worlds : the historic environment on the one hand, and contemporary/modern architecture, on the other. The Department feels that this dichotomy is false and serves to preserve a rarified, elite image of architecture that inhibits a more commonplace engagement with the built environment. DCMS believes the promotion of education in the sector will help to create a more coherent historical appreciation of architecture and the built environment.
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'At DCMS we see the built environment as rich and fertile and with a relevance not just to the curriculum but to lifelong learning and addressing social exclusion, cultural diversity and access. Looking at buildings and spaces can help us understand a lot of things about a lot of subjects. History, politics, maths, science – or perhaps music, philosophy and art. Learning about these things from looking at buildings is usually free and it’s available in streets and neighbourhoods all round the country – in a high street near you.'
Fergus Muir, DCMS
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