In the 1920s, German psychology considered how people visually processed their world. Gestalt (“unified whole”) theory attempted to understand how one grouped or divided the elements within their visual field in order to process space and depth. In the late 1940s and 1950s, a number of architectural programs in America began to follow the Bauhaus’s lead and introduced projects rooted in visual perception. These programs determined that spatial recognition and compositional ordering were the essential foundational skills necessary for beginning an architectural education. Their faculties developed the cube exercise, referencing Gestalt theory, developed the cube exercise and eventually made it the standard for introducing beginning design students to space and form. Today it remains a popular teaching device; but does the cube exercise belong in today’s architectural curriculum? This paper explores this topic through the following areas:
• History and development of the cube.
• Arguments by both critics and proponents of the cube.
• Possible new directions for the cube, and new avenues for educators to investigate.