The processes of learning how to become an architect has always involved historical research, albeit from a biographical perspective (H. Allen Brooks when he studied Le Corbusier), from a generational perspective (Silvia Arango on researching the common processes be- longing to six generations of architects who defined twentieth century Latin America), or from a pedagogical perspective (Jean-Nicolas- Louis Durand's Précis des leçons d’architecture).
The opposite side of the question, in other words questioning the role that history plays in an architects’ training, despite not being addressed very often, is more problematic and therefore more often avoided. Bruno Zevi, one of the leading authors on the historiography of modern architecture is being rather provocative when he moots Le Corbusier’s controversial historical vision expressed by the term tabula rasa as an axis for a history course based on “the fusion of cultural and creative journeys, the uniformity between historical consciousness and poetic escape —a unique phenomenon within the landscape of the masters of modern architecture— and for its value, which is simultaneously technical-operative, linguistic, and ethical."
