The Elephant in the Room: How neoliberal architecture education undermines wellbeing

This essay examines the performative space of neoliberal architectural education in the United Kingdom, its history, attributes and values, focusing on staff and student wellbeing in relation to work-time. In so doing, it addresses the vertical unit studio as the ‘elephant in the room’. As a site in which unhealthy work practices are acculturated, and which, when learned at university, can be perpetuated throughout an architect’s work life, the vertical unit system encourages a competitive ego culture at the expense of a balanced work life. In a neoliberal market economy, how might the architecture design studio /education be reframed to enhance wellbeing?