The Concourse Model for Communities of Practice

The concept of a virtual learning concourse arose out of a desire to investigate the potentials for a real time ‘virtual university’ on the lines of the virtual stock exchange created for the New York exchange by architects Asymptote. This soon evolved into an investigation into new learning environments, and that in turn evolved into an investigation into communities of practice (CoPs), the contexts for learning environments.

Much of this thinking has been collected in the paper in progress “Virtual Concourse 15 08 03.” In 2004 the focus has been twofold: developing a web-based concourse for LAB 3000, and creating a real model of the concourse as the armature for the LAB 3000 Digital Design Biennale. This work was presented to the RMIT UCD symposium early in the year, and it attracted the justifiable criticism that the work was very strongly located in the visual imagery sphere. The work has continued in this vein however, because this iteration is specifically intended fro use by design practitioners.

The theoretical work has been progressed in the writing of my book “Mastering Architecture: becoming an innovative practitioner” that will be published by Wiley in November. This contains chapters on CoP issues such as “Encouraging Mastery” and “Thwarting Mastery”. The CoP in question is a very specific one, and issues of ‘self-curation’ within the concourse of a CoP are discussed.

In the meantime, a paper, now titled “Innovative Architectures: Building local platforms of mastery that give rise to innovative architecture” has been developed through two conferences. It was delivered as a keynote at the International Cities and Town Centres Society conference in Fremantle in May, and further developed as the keynote address for the Charles Darwin University Symposium “Creative Tropical Cities” in early June. The paper describes different strategies used around the world in the pursuit of vibrant CoPs.

Another paper describing the trajectories of fourteen architects from mastery to innovation has been developed as the precursor to an exhibition at the TarraWarra Museum of Art in November. This exhibition will explore the ‘law of small numbers’ concept of Randall Collins (2000), a concept that describes the competitive discourse necessary for a full flowering of a community of practice engaged in intellectual change. This paper was given at The University of Westminster to an invited audience, and at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki (UIAH). Discussions have helped in the refinement of the final draft of the book “Mastering Architecture.”

At RMIT there have been discussions with various people about the use of the virtual concourse as a concept only model for introducing commencing students to the layers of the community of practice that they are joining. Work on a virtual model as such is now dependent on the completion of certain research projects within SIAL (Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory at RMIT.) Once this is completed late this year, the way will be open to applying for resources to construct an ‘alterative environment’ for a community of researchers in design at RMIT – a community that Robyn Barnacle’s research has begun to unveil.

The notion of a community of practice has a longer history at RMIT. In the mid 1990s I developed a model of a learning community based on the work of Boyer (Ernest L. Boyer 1990), then being introduced to the University by Ruth Dunkin. Under the umbrella of ‘integrated scholarship’ a model of what we would now call a school was built up as a series of ‘scholarship triangles.’ These triangles were diagnostic devices. A triangle that had complete connectivity from ‘perceived needs of the community’ through to scholars engaged in Discovery, Integration of new knowledge to existing, Application, Dissemination, T&L and that had appropriate facilities for mode two learning and research, was availed of its full entitlements to allocated funds based on student enrolments, and was meeting the university norm for earned income, was characterised as a full triangle. Any shortfalls at each indicator level shrank that bar toward a central axis, making a diagram that looked like a jagged Christmas tree. This simple gap analysis revealed a lot about the interconnectivity, or lack of it between research and learning, and about the way in which scholars and students were able to progress between the various forms of scholarship. We continue to use this analytical tool, and this year working with LAB 3000, SIAL and Leigh Peterson of R&I, I have developed a scholarship matrix to inform the establishment of an Interactive Information (Design) Virtual Research Institute, properly integrated into the wider community of practice.

Leon van Schaik
Innovation Professor of Architecture, RMIT
UCD Project
leon.vanschaik@rmit.edu.au

View paper, "Innovative Architectures: Building local platforms of mastery that give rise to innovative architecture" (.doc) Members only

NOTE

Collins, Randall (2000) The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change, Harvard University Press. Camb. Mass

Ernest L. Boyer (1990). Scholarship Reconsidered. Priorities of the Professoriate, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Princeton.