Teaching Strategies and Practices That Facilitate the Development of Design Concepts in Architectural Engineering Education

Abstract

Developing design concepts is crucial in architectural engineering education, yet helping students to develop these concepts is a challenging task. Despite previous research exploring design concepts, statistical analysis is scarce to evaluate their effectiveness. This study used the body movement methods from existing literature, combined with photography to transform the 3D body movements into 2D drawings, serving as the basis for developing designs (sources of design concept). A total of 51 students participated in the course. In the end, the hands-on process and learning outcomes were investigated objectively through statistical analysis. The operational model of the course can act as the reference for future hands-on education and design concept development. The specific results are: (1) body movements and material (board) limitation can bring about inspiration for the initial development of the design; (2) the images produced from the adopted photography technique can effectively assist students in developing design concepts; (3) the material chosen for model making should be similar to that used in the subsequent hands-on work as much as possible to better realize the concept; and (4) a variety of unexpected functional usability and esthetic shapes can be created through post-production reflection. Both body dimensions and photography techniques were extremely successful in this operation, thus providing a concrete way to learn how to manipulate a design concept.