A Macintosh Design Studio

Abstract

During the past year at the University of Oregon, we have conducted an experimental design studio in which each student had an Apple Macintosh SE microcomputer on his or her studio desk. Each term we experimented with a variety of software, furniture arrangements, and pedagogical approaches to integrating computers in design teaching. Like most others who have conducted such experiments, we encountered problems in trying to use hardware and software which is fundamentally inappropriate for the intuitive, graphic, and creative processes characteristic of preliminary design. However, we solved many of these problems and have produced useful techniques that may form the beginnings of a new approach to the use of computers in architecture schools. Our results fall in three major categories: 1) pedagogical discoveries about learning to design with a computer, which is greater than the sum of learning to design and learning about computers; 2) design exercises based on the Macintosh environment, exploiting the unique graphic qualities of the machine while simultaneously developing the ideas and drawing skills needed in the preliminary stages of design; 3) descriptions of the studio environment, including hardware, software, workstation layouts, security solutions, and other practical information that might be useful to others who are contemplating a similar project.