Grit in the Oyster : the challenges of merging two schools of architecture as illustrated through the first year

The first student intake to the Architecture programs to the newly formed Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA) took place in September 2009. This was both the culmination of a complex project to align two existing schools of architecture in the city, and the beginning of a slow merge that will see the first set of graduates from 2012, up until 2014 when the transition will be complete. This has been a gritty, but positive experience, which has incorporated teaching practices from both schools of architecture at Edinburgh College of Art and the University of Edinburgh, as well as the introduction of innovative approaches to teaching, and learning rooted on increasing intensity of the design courses and offering a structured pattern aimed to cyclical learning. This paper aims to present and reflect on the conception and implementation of the new undergraduate architectural programs with a focus on the first year arguing that a slow-paced and continuing reflective process of change may be more effective than the implementation of a overly determinist strategy put in place through one step. The authors believe on the value of the transferable nature of this experience, which could offer an insight on issues that may affect other schools of architecture in process of merger or transformation.