What is built and what is taught: The difference between teaching and professional practice in building structures

The authors show the great difference that exists between structural solutions that are taught and that students have to resolve to obtain the qualification of Architect and the constructive and structural solutions that are common in professional practice in Spain. A database of structural solutions used in master’s degree projects for professional qualification and their results was therefore prepared and compared with existing statistical construction data. It can be deduced from this data that there is a discrepancy between students’ proposals and usual practice, in structural types as well as in terms of size, materials and building category.