HarvardX GSD1x Certificate 1I recently completed the course "The Architectural Imagination" created for online learning from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.  The instructor is Michael Hays, who is the Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory and Harvard.  

This course was excellent and really exceeded my expectations.  I did not go to architecture school.  I chose the builder path but always loved architecture and spent 7 years working for architects early in my career learning all that I could so I could incorporate the philosophy into my design-build business which I have run since 2004.  I focus mainly on residential projects where licensing is not an issue.  But I respect the structure that is set up to train and license architects in the our country.  I am a licensed general contractor and understand the value of education and continuous learning and training.

This course exposed me to some of the things I missed like the awesome history and philosophy associated with architecture.  We learned about architectural typology and evolution of architecture from the classical era to the modern.  There were great lectures by Michael Hayes and you really got a feel of what it might be like to sit with other students and learn about architecture.  I would recommend this course to anyone in the design-build industry.  Maybe if enough of we contractors did this, the great divide might be eliminated.