An Attempt to Fill the Gap between the Architectural Studies and Conceptualization in Architectural Thesis Design Studio

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the application of a theoretical framework in the architecture thesis project to discover the effectiveness of the exercise on the thesis projects. It was common to observe that the students prepared the architectural thesis project with limited, unstructured, or disconnected studies to analysis, programming, and conceptualization phases. A theoretical framework model was tested to evaluate the effects on the learning outcomes of the students. The methodology of the research was designed based on structured observation and content analysis. The findings of the research reveal that the students perceive and understand the studies and the theoretical framework differently. The students demonstrated their theoretical framework with four categorical specifications including information, application, presentation, and communication. The information referred to data and structure of the organization, the application implied the relation between the data collection, analysis and other phases of the thesis project, the presentation illustrated how they applied graphical tools to illustrate the data, and communication revealed the interaction between the students and the panel of juries and participants. In conclusion, the theoretical framework connects the studies to the concept generation and opens a new door for the discussion of the architectural studies and lessons learnt between the panel of juries, the students, and peers. For an effective expectation from the theoretical framework outputs, detailed guidelines could harmonize the students’ outputs due to the varieties of the application, interpretation, and demonstration of the architectural theoretical frameworks.