The “Digital Year for Architects” – Experiences with an Integrated Teaching Concept

Abstract

The “digital year for architects” is an integrated course for graduate architecture students that has been running since 1997, at Stuttgart University. Its concept is to link together traditional design teaching and working with computers. Three seminar classes and one design project form the framework of the course. In it the students are taught the design of, for example, image and space composition, typography, video, and using virtual reality. Additionally we cover theoretical basics for the final design project, such as information management or working environments. The course takes in approximately a dozen software packages and ends with a visionary design project.The products have shown the advantage of an integrated course compared to separate courses. The course proves to be more intensive in dealing with the project as well as achieving better skills when learning the associated new digital media. An important feature is that because the project topics are different from conventional architectural schemes, and tend to be more abstract, a key effect is to widen the students' way of thinking about designing.