Architectural Design Education Research Articles

Critical Reflections on the Surface, Pedagogical and Epistemological Features of the Design Studio under the “New Normal” Conditions

This study aims to make a critical reading on the constraints and potentials that emerge through the transition from face-to-face to screen-to-screen teaching and learning experiences in design education during the COVID-19 pandemic. By making a critical reading of current discussions, mostly in narrative surveys, on architectural design education, it is attempted to re-contextualize the emerging concepts of the remote teaching and learning to the broader context of design studio pedagogy literature. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the model developed by Shaffer (2003) regarding the three main elements of the design studio pedagogy as (1) “surface structures”, (2) “pedagogical forms” and (3) “epistemological principles.” The study revealed that the current situation, on the one hand, opened the ways for us to test “new” tools, methods and experiences of teaching and learning, and on the other hand, allowed us to better understand the potentials and well-functioning aspects of the “existing” pedagogical models. Rather than reducing the discussions on remote teaching and learning to a ‘technology-driven’ paradigm change in design education, future research should focus on the effects of changing pedagogical tools and practices on the manifold dimensions of ‘human learning’, which in turn will have implications for the epistemology of design pedagogy.

Design Course Teaching Practice Returning to Architecture Origin ———Kindergarten Curriculum Modular Construction

Architectural design teaching must be based on the basic problems of architecture, strengthen the students' understanding and cognition of the origin of architecture, grasp the ability of grasping the essence and solving the problems in the constantly changing requirements of development. Based on the kindergarten curriculum design and teaching practice, this article explores the core elements of architectural design through the interrelationship between the use of object scale and cognition of behavior, as well as the construction of building space and scene construction, to rational judgment, and gradually understand and master the basic methods of architectural design.

THE PROCESS OF CREATIVITY AND CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT IN INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE DESIGN EDUCATION

This study included the assessment of final project deliveries, interview and survey results of 67 freshman students of the Introduction to Design II course in the Department of Interior Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Design at Kocaeli University, Turkey. The aim of this study was to reveal how concept development process affected students’ understanding of design and their creativity in interior architecture design education. Within the scope of the study, the methods that the students used during the design process and the connections between these methods and design products were examined as well as the progression of those in the process who were directed to develop concepts. It was observed, as a result of the study, that the group who were informed about concept development process and were directed to develop concepts were able to generate original and innovative designs. In this context, it is thought that the study will contribute to improve the students’ creativity by helping them consciously use concept development method in the design process.

New Strategies of Linkography for Investigating the Role of Dialogues in Architectural Design Education

New Strategies of Linkography for Investigating the Role of Dialogues in Architectural Design Education

Традиции и инновации живописной составляющей в архитектурно-дизайнерском образовании

The article examines the historical and pedagogical component of painting training in the Russian architectural design education, considers the necessity to introduce innovative technologies into the system of architectural designers’ painting education. Taking into account modern realia, the authors propose original and efficient painting teaching methodology, which is relevant for all the levels of education, from the Bachelor’s degree level where the emphasis is on reproducing classical paintings to the Master’s degree level where students work with colour computer graphics.

Sustainable Architectural Design Education: An Improved Experimental Method in a 3rd Year Design Studio

The design studio is a unique class format within the architectural curriculum education, in which learning is based on student-instructor interaction and learning by experiences while architectural design is the collective of knowledge and skills to accomplish a unique expectation of a product. Sustainable design has been incorporated into many architecture curriculum education programs but there has been lack of merging in design studio project. This study introduces an improved method of the first experimental Sustainable Architectural Design Studio (SADS) with restructured teaching tools for integrating sustainability principles in design studio along with the studio outcome. In additional, it presents the evaluation and the assessment of the improved method as well as the finding along with the recommendations for the future experimental.

The Effects of Polyhedrons in Developing Three Dimensional Form Perception

This study was conducted to determine whether it is possible to combine the traditional education model and computational design approach to improve the three dimensional morphology. In this study, many national and international publications related to the research subject were examined and a theoretical framework was established and a workshop was conducted with 42 students who received architectural basic design education. In order to evaluate the workshop, a questionnaire was collected with the students who participated in the workshop. The data obtained from the survey were evaluated with the statistical evaluation program (SPSS). In the study, students' individual gains in the workshop process; shape space perception development 82.9%, three-dimensional thinking skills 92.7%, self-confidence and decision-making ability to use 39%, 73.2% to have the chance to try and error, 95.1% of learning skills, while they were found to have acquired. Students' group work gains; 87.2%, the decision-making experience 84.6%, the discussion and exchange of ideas 79.5%. When the design models learned by the students are examined; understanding of the number of edges, corners and surfaces of smooth four sides was determined as 82.1%, and the number of edges, corners and surfaces of the cube was 79.5%. In this study; as a formatting method and computational design has achieved a great deal of success in terms of providing basic gains. Polyhedrons have been identified as a suitable design object in order to improve the three-dimensional morphology and to combine the traditional education model with computational design approach.

A STUDY ON THE INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN STUDENT CONSCIOUSNESS BY WOODEN CRAFTSMANSHIP ACTIVITY

The purpose of this study was to clarify the individual difference of participants in “Wooden Craftsmanship Activity (WCA)” based of the questionnaire to the university students. There are few study related for wooden craftsmanship including design education that searching the individual difference of each group which clarifying the effect of the activity. In this study, the influence from architectural design education through field research, planning, design, production, presentation, contribution to the local and activity of WCA which is related environment education is focused.

Appraisal Based Learning for Effective Cognition of Vernacular Architecture

one of the objectives of architectural design education can be defined as mentoring architecture students to produce meaningful architecture. In concurrence a progressive divergent framework to facilitate effective learning is required. This could be achieved by adopting an instructional strategy which focuses on act of meaningful knowing. This approach would not only make transmission of learning contextually relevant, but may also significantly alter the perception of the habitable space to be conceived. The research further depicts the need for diachronic process based appraisal format of enquiry. The emphasis is on retrieval of information about effective building design strategies from past attempts with respect to a particular typology of habitat design. This knowledge base becomes basis for innovative problem addressal while resolving new spatial issues. Such a precedent based instructional strategy would pave way for meaningful architectural discourse in the design studio. A framework for appraisal based study is proposed as part of the research paper. A qualitative study of the fundamentals of traditional dwellings practices in Kerala is also carried out as part of this research. From the view point of perceiving and reflecting on built environment; the ability to recognise, understand and experience spaces in terms of appropriate settings, spatial quality, functionality and form is essential. The proposed instructional framework is further strengthened by integrating with fundamental concepts of learning theories and physiological activities related to teaching and learning based mentoring process. Essential traits from the three domains of learning theory namely behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism are incorporated to construct a learning experience known as comprehensive approach. The understanding of human cognition and induced activity helps us to logically comprehend the various activities involved at respective stages during learning. This overall act relates to how rationally processed information is being organised in a person, how it is likely to be retrieved and applied for resolving spatial issues related to habitat design when given an opportunity.

The acoustic designer: Joining soundscape and architectural acoustics in architectural design education

This article discusses the integration of acoustic design approaches into architectural design education settings. Solving architectural acoustic problems has been for centuries one of the primary aims of theories and experiments in acoustics. Recent contributions offered by the soundscape approach have highlighted broader desirable aims which acoustic designers should pursue, fostering ecological reasoning on the acoustic environment and its perception as a whole. Drawing from the available literature, some examples are brought to show the integration of architectural acoustics and soundscape approaches into the realm of architectural design education, highlighting the significance of specific design situations and aural training techniques in learning contexts.

AESTHETIC COGNITION IN ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION: A METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO DEVELOP LEARNING PROCESS IN DESIGN STUDIOS

Aesthetics and the design studio have been widely regarded as germane to architecture education and architectural design education respectively. Despite this obvious importance and relationship, very scant studies have been done on how aesthetics as a concept, has been thought in architectural schools especially with regard to the pedagogue of acquiring aesthetic knowledge as perceived by instructors and students in the Design Studio. Moreover, despite its centrality in architectural studies, there is a current gap in literature pertaining to aesthetics and the steps to teaching it in architectural design studios. This paper presents a discussion on the aesthetics and the process of teaching it in design studio using a qualitative grounded theory approach. In view of the paucity of work on the teaching pedagogue in architectural design studios, this study aim at shedding light on how students and studio instructors perceive the extant state of the methods of teaching aesthetics and identify the aesthetics of architecture. In this regard, the study by hypothesizing the design studios as the core contributor in architectural design developed the contributing elements in aesthetic education of architecture.

Neuropsychological Assessment of First‐Year Architecture Students’ Visuospatial Abilities: Overview

AbstractFirst‐year architecture students are expected to utilise visuospatial abilities to generate/construct, retain, rotate and manipulate space mentally and physically through physical and digital representations. This study of 57 female and 23 male participants was conducted to investigate first‐year architecture students’ visuospatial abilities by means of the Beck Depression Inventory, Logical Reasoning Test and Judgment of Line Orientation (JLO) test. Participants’ sexes, cognitive development level, depression scale scores, university entrance exam results, vision disorders, physical competences, art training prior to university and error types were the study’s main parameters. The results showed that academic scores of the participants both to enrol in the program and complete the first‐year studio did not correlate with their JLO scores. Nondepressed participants performed better in JLO. Error analyses demonstrated that there is a concentration on certain items according to the test stimulus line positions, especially in females. Those who reported limited physical and visual competency made more mistakes in the same items. The study concludes that sex, depression, and individual differences in physical and visual competency, and art training, are significant variables for visuospatial performance. Judging visuospatial parameters through spatial design exercises is different from having proper methods and instruments to assess the achievements of the students regarding those abilities in architectural design education. It is important to map students’ visuospatial abilities individually from a developmental perspective. There is a strong need to develop 4D psychometric instrument to assess visuospatial abilities.

The Utilization of Environmental Simulation Tools in Architectural Design Education

In architecture pedagogy, the architectural design process is a creative one. It relies on the ingenuity of the student to use all key issues of a building problem and interpret them as spatial elements, which are incorporated within the building design. The emphasis on the environmental design of buildings is a significant step due to the increasing awareness of the use of passive systems and strategies. Thus, students face increased pressure to design buildings with solutions toward environment. This paper presents a descriptive study that investigates the utilization of simulation tools in the design process to enhance the learning outcomes and allow students to become sensitive contributors to the strong link between environment and architecture. The study focuses on the tools deployed by students from studio-VIII, in the college of architecture and design at Effat University, to embed passive performance techniques during design problem solving. The paper identifies the tools students used, and the impact of using them on selective projects. Moreover, the paper applies a questionnaire among the targeted students to investigate how simulation could inform their design through different stages of the design process starting from the pre-design studies to the final feedback on their design. The findings illustrate how simulation tools were used integrative to building design. The selected projects identified some of the challenges faced by students to incorporate simulation methodologies during a routine design studio process and it advocate considering the design problem-solving patterns and preferences in the improvement of environmental design.

Virtual vs. actual body: applicability of anthropomorphic avatars to enhance exploratory creativity in architectural design education

This study examines the relationship between the virtual bodies of anthropomorphic avatars and exploratory creativity in empirical architectural design education. In Study 1, architecture major students (N = 83) conducted two design tasks via each of an actual human body in a real environment with a full-scale mockup model and avatars in a 3D virtual environment with a digital model. Following the tasks, students evaluated self-exploration levels, aiming to discover unexpected, novel, and functional solutions. In Study 2, students (N = 106) designed two architectural 3D digital models, without and with the presence of avatars, with self-evaluations as in Study 1. The statistical analyses revealed that (1) the virtual and actual bodies were not statistically different in supporting the students’ exploratory creativity. However, (2) in digital modeling, using the virtual body of an avatar better facilitated the search for functional aspects of design and consequently promoted exploratory creativity, relevant to perception-action coupling and para-perception.

Application of bamboo in a design–build course: Lianhuadang Farm project

The entire process of the Lianhuadang Farm Project, that is, from early-stage investigations to the completed construction, was documented. This project is a graduate design–build course of the School of Architecture of Southeast University. Dingshu Town, Yixing, which has a long handicraft tradition in eastern China, is the project site. Students and craftsmen constructed six viewing facilities and renovated a toilet and a management building. We explored ways of using bamboo and traditional craftsmanship by analyzing the main teaching procedures and the key technical issues in the project. We also studied contemporary methods to expand the construction in real environments. Finally, the significance of bamboo construction for architectural design teaching was examined.

A study for Application Research of “Regional” Architectural Culture in Architectural Design Courses

Under the impact of the globalization culture, the city’s style looks like the same in many cities in China. It has caused the reflection of the architects and hopes to integrate regional culture into the architectural design. This article takes the design topic “Pedestrian Commercial Street Design” in architectural design teaching as an example. By comparing the learning effects of students before and after study, it provides practice and reflection for regional architecture design. Firstly, it reviews and discusses the development of Yinchuan regional architecture and regional theory as the basis of teaching process. Secondly, through the practical operation of design teaching, students are guided to complete relevant design content. Finally, through the questionnaire survey on the learning effect before and after the students’ study, the students’ regional academic operation results are summarized. By reflecting on the concept of regional architecture in the process of design teaching, the author tries to put forward some suggestions on the development of regional architecture.

Analysis of the Creativity Development and Assessment of Architectural Design Education: A Case Study of Basic Design Studio

Basic design education retains its seminal role in most of the architectural curricula today. Having the primary goal of getting acquainted students with knowledge and skills of design basics, basic design education supports the development of creative ways of thinking combined with hands-on learning experiences. The assignments address the articulation of the basic design in 2D and 3D elements such as lines, planes, volumes, structures and forms, while students are encouraged to experiment the potentials of different materials and techniques. Course included 9 different 2D and 3D exercises that focus on design principles and elements together by adding different design problems in process. For instance, structural problems as self-standing or modular 3D units’ penetrations and strengthens for complex design problems are added for further assignments in the schedule. In this process ‘creativity development’ is assessed and evaluated by considering the whole course schedule at the example of individual student assignments. The objective of this paper is to make an analysis of creativity development with regard to the assessment and evaluation procedures, taking the process and products of a basic design studio as a case study. The methodological framework of this paper is based on the examination of two sets of data; (1) ‘quantitative data’ that includes the grades of assignments that are designed as part of ARCH 101 Design course of architecture program at Özyeğin University Faculty of Architecture and Design in “ARCH 101 in Fall term of 2017-2018 academic program; (2) ‘qualitative data’ that includes the studio observations and reflective interpretations of instructors regarding the creativity development process for individually student assignments. Grades give the idea of which student exercise has been understood well and reached its learning objectives by considering the whole class. Majority tendency of the grades help assessment of the schedule from the aspect of creativity development. The evaluation of creativity includes manifold aspects of assessment. Teachers’ style, schedule of the course, personal factors such as students’ personal backgrounds, former education, and the styles of thinking and learning, being individual or collective are all effective on creativity.

Embedding built heritage values in architectural design education

Continuity and change have become crucial themes for the built environment and heritage buildings; also in the education and practice of architects. Embedding built heritage values into studio-based design education is a daunting new challenge that demands new didactic perspectives and tools. To address the dilemmas that come with design assignments for adaptive reuse, an experiment with new didactic analytical tools has been conducted in the Heritage & Architecture (H&A) architectural design studios at the Delft University of Technology. The analysis attempts to connect matter—physical structures—and meaning in a structured graphical process through predefined mapping exercises. Our aim is to introduce a step-by-step method for exploration that can form the foundation of values-based design from built heritage. Central to our multifaceted approach is a specially developed matrix that is meant to support design-oriented analysis of heritage buildings. This paper situates the H&A perspective on the adaptive reuse of valorised buildings within the heritage discourse and architectural design education in general and further gives insight into the didactics, the tools, their uses and initial results. After a critical reflection on our points of departure, based in an evaluation of results, peer discussion and student evaluation, we conclude that the applied methodology is instructive to the educational goals but also merits further development. One of the lessons learnt for future teaching includes allowing students freedom to discover values themselves. An important conclusion is that an earlier and broader foundation that engages the continuation of tangible and intangible heritage values in the ever-changing built environment is required in architectural educational practice.

Action research and architectural sustainable design education: a case study in Brazil

Research to improve aspects of architectural design education produced a collection of research-supported best practices and these lessons need integration into the studio environment. Design instructors must innovate, but in ways that allow previous result analysis. Action Research (AR) is seen as a valuable asset for providing an opportunity for systematic documentation and reflection of tested variables. This paper presents an AR-enriched architectural design studio teaching experience delivered to third year Architecture and Urban Design students and devised to support individual design process development of students, framed by bioclimatic and sustainable design of school buildings. A 5-year AR project sought to identify (1) the points where undergraduate architecture students “got stuck” during design development; (2) why they had difficulties to fully understand and integrate sustainability concepts into their proposals; and (3) which contents and approaches could help them to overcome design blocks and produce sustainability responsive quality designs. Our research involved 150 students while taking the studio between 2013 and 2018. As a design process takes time to be consolidated and assimilated, positive response was clearer in relation to students’ interest, behavior and demonstration of understanding of the body of knowledge. Significantly improved student design outcomes were not yet confirmed. However, our findings validate AR to improve a design studio setting through accumulated learning by instructors and detailed documentation and systematic analysis of the effects of a collection of approaches, tools and protocols could be applied to independent analysis to increase the quality of architectural design with sustainability in mind.

A introdução da abordagem paramétrica no ensino de projeto arquitetônico: relato de uma experiência

Diante das discussões contemporâneas sobre a aplicação dos meios digitais mais recentes na atividade projetual, o presente artigo tem como objetivo contribuir para a compreensão de estratégias para introduzir o processo paramétrico de projeto no ensino de projeto arquitetônico. Considerando levantamento teórico e prático, parte-se da hipótese de que apenas o ensino tutorial de ferramentas não é o suficiente para uma aprendizagem do processo paramétrico em todo o seu potencial, sendo necessário vislumbrar um percurso didático que inclua tanto uma mudança de olhar sobre o objeto projetado, quanto a própria atividade projetual. Apresenta-se e discute-se aqui um dos experimentos pedagógicos realizados na etapa de validação da pesquisa – um curso de extensão de 40 horas, desenvolvido na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, com registro do processo e coleta de dados junto aos participantes. O curso incluiu noções introdutórias sobre o tema, exercícios de criação com ferramenta paramétrica e atelier de projeto. As atividades de atelier envolveram o desenvolvimento de um bicicletário em equipe, com realização de brainstorm, desenvolvimento da proposta e apresentação dos produtos finais. Como resultado, percebe-se que, apesar dos participantes não apresentarem experiência prévia com o tema, os processos e produtos são foram satisfatórios, com o desenvolvimento e investigação de algoritmos complexos, além do reconhecimento do potencial da modelagem paramétrica, associada a práticas reflexivas em atelier. Os principais desafios incluem as mudanças da lógica projetual habitual, extrapolando o uso da ferramenta. Observou-se a importância de se introduzir a abordagem paramétrica no ensino para além de experimentos didáticos isolados, distribuída coerentemente com a estrutura curricular dos cursos, demandando a identificação das áreas de conhecimento em que o tema pode ser inserido.