Architectural Curriculum Research Articles

The Transformative Power of the Study Abroad Experience

Language-related Study Abroad (SA) experiences can be catalysts for learner transformation in the areas of cognition, socialization, and/or affect by virtue of the location and experience. An Open Architecture Curriculum Design (OACD) framework can support, promote, and enhance such transformation, as evidenced in eight programs for young adults, including language students in government programs, referenced in this article. An educational philosophy that focuses on language learner transformation, Transformative Language Learning and Teaching (TLLT) has as its primary goals personal transformation that leads to multilingual/multicultural competence and learner autonomy; OACD is a fundamental principle of TLLT. Grounded in the work of Mezirow (1978, 1991), who first observed and described Transformative Learning (TL) in adult education, TLLT posits that the personal transformation cited involves cognitive, emotional, and cultural shifts occurring within the individual as s/he develops self-awareness, resolves disorienting dilemmas, identifies cognitive distortions, manages emotions, and ultimately integrates two (or more) cultures—the home culture and the target culture--on their own terms. TLLT in SA can be expressed as in-country study experience, virtual experience, language program with a service component, or in-country work experience with a language component. SA TLLT, in varying formats, has been used successfully in university, service academy, and government learning environments before, during, and after COVID—and continues to evolve with changing times.&nbsp

Mapping the Landscape of Circular Design Thinking and Practices in Architecture Education in Greece

The present contribution discusses how circular thinking and design-and-build practices are implemented in architectural curricula in Greece. Run simultaneously with a broader survey that seeks to identify the adoption of circular construction in different educational contexts across Europe, this study investigates the features of the Greek paradigm across the seven accredited public schools of architecture in Greece and the one in Cyprus. Both works are situated within the broader scope of the ERASMUS+ project Crafting Circularity: Rethinking Sustainable Design and Construction in Architecture Education, aiming in building a methodological framework on project-based learning-through-making methodologies to embed circular thinking in architecture education, eventually resulting in a paradigm shift towards circular design practices. The current mapping assignment is built on the outline of the principal survey, which has three axes: investigating institutional backgrounds, theory courses and design studios, and design-and-build modules in architectural curricula. A modified version was employed to respond to the peculiarities of the Greek paradigm: broadening the scope of the survey under or around the wider sustainability umbrella, adding a fourth axis on elements in-between education and research or informal extra-curricular activities, including an actual mapping component and revising the structure and content of the original survey.

The Village Needs Attention: Collaborative and Participatory Design Studio Process in Teaching Rural Architecture

Looking at the village through the lens of ‘romanticism’ often frames a village with thatch-roofed courtyard-centered houses, situated within a green-blue landscape. The people are not placed in this picturesque view, and their day-to-day life activities are ignored. The rural-to-urban migration, changing landscape and profession due to climate change, loss of agricultural land, etc. need careful attention. Because of the rapid growth of urbanization and associated infrastructure, every year Bangladesh loses 0.3% of its cultivated land, where the country is still mostly agrarian. Again, the short-sighted yet populist political statement- ‘Village will be the city’, looks for immediate ‘action’ leaving the ‘romanticism’. Frustratingly, rural planning and architecture are not well placed in the curriculum of Architecture. Professionals who will shape the future of the built environment, if unaware of a context, can’t act in an informed way. Four residential workshops were conducted in the Department of Architecture, DIU during the 2018-2021 time period, under an initiative titled ‘Grammo’, by the author. The residential workshop tried to look at the architecture of the village within a broad spectrum of socio-cultural and environmental events. Therefore, the participation of local stakeholders as well as the social hub was carefully included. The outcome of these workshops searched for need-based project ideas, which are then practiced either as class projects or documented digitally. These project proposals/ documents were displayed in those villages for user feedback. The paper aims at sharing the participatory process and outlining a participatory framework so that a new method of teaching rural architecture can be formulated in the design discipline.

Crafting Circularity. A European Education Project Exploring Sustainable Construction Practices with Future Architects

Situated within the broader scope of the ERASMUS+ research project Crafting Circularity: Rethinking Sustainable Design and Construction in Architecture Education, the present paper is an early contribution on project-based learning-through-making methodologies and their implementation in architectural curricula. The construction industry exploits vast quantities of raw materials, produces more than a third of global waste, and causes a large portion of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. However, while new models tackling resource scarcity emerge in practice and an array of R-strategies is discussed within the research community, education is yet to adjust, architectural education in particular. If architects are a decisive agent of change, this needs to be distinctly reflected in the reorientation of teaching. This project discusses strategies for translating current research findings on circular construction practices into architectural education. The various components of the project are presented, along with first outcomes and transferable insights.

코로나 팬데믹시대 건축전공 학생들의 온라인 교육 경험에 대한 탐색적 연구

The digital transformation of education has accelerated as it has shifted to non-face-to-face distance lectures due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This sudden change has had a significant impact on university education. This study aims to analyze how the change in the educational environment caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic in recent years was experienced by college students majoring in architecture and to suggest the desirable direction and implementation plan for the educational environment in the future. The study was conducted in two major stages. In the first stage, an online survey was conducted for students of Architecture. In the second stage, an in-depth interview was conducted as a follow-up study based on the survey’s results targeting insufficient content. We found a difference between students in grades three to five who experienced face-to-face classes and students in grades one and two who did not experience face-to-face classes, and stratified sampling was performed to compare the two groups. This study concludes that developing online education content and educational form suitable for the primary architectural curriculum is necessary. Second, online classes have significantly changed students’ learning activities, and it is essential to develop an educational environment to cope with this. Third, the LMS environment currently designed in Korea has a uniform user interface, making it difficult to activate online classes. Fourth, for a successful non-face-to-face course, the virtual education space and the physical education space associated with it should be considered. Since students’ concentration and immersion in the virtual education space are closely connected with the physical education space, a new type of space planning that can support online classes in various ways is required.

BIM and the future of architecture teaching

Innovations offered by digital technologies to architecture, civil engineering and construction can significantly alter professional practices. Among the alternatives, BIM (Building Information Modeling) can accelerate the design management through a process based on the interoperability, leading architects, and engineers to work collaboratively. Since 2007, there was a huge increase on research related to BIM possibilities. However, the rapid pace of research has not been accompanied by the necessary changes in the curriculum of architecture and civil engineering undergraduate courses. In Brazil, Decree No. 9,983 of 2019 stablished the basis for BIM’s National Strategy, starting initiatives to leverage actions promoting gains in productivity and competitiveness in the civil construction sector. This paper presents the results of a research that aims to analyses the potential of BIM Domain Model Uses as an alternative to stablish a pathway for including BIM in architecture undergraduate teaching process. A case study has been conducted in two phases: the analysis of the current curriculum of the architecture undergraduate course of a Brazilian Faculty and the analysis of the new curriculum recently approved by the institution. Preliminary result allows to identify alternatives to include BIM since the first periods of the course, increasing gradually in complexity until the capstone project. Among the aspects to be considered, the adoption of a collaborative teaching process is the most important. However, the mindsets and attitudes need to change to fully take advantage of BIM potentialities in architecture teaching.

Integrating ICTs into the Zimbabwean secondary school pre-service teachers' curriculum

The need for nations to enhance their competitiveness by leveraging the imperatives of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has seen major shifts in teaching and learning strategies employed globally by educators. Research in Zimbabwean education has pointed to a gap in teachers' competence in the use of information communication technologies (ICTs) for teaching. Using the UNESCO ICT competency for teachers and Bernstein's (2000) theory of the pedagogic device we propose a conceptual framework for the pre-service ICT curriculum at four Zimbabwean secondary school teachers' colleges in relation, in particular, to the complexities present in the nexus of the curriculum's architecture, pedagogy, and delivery context. The framework suggests strategies on how this curriculum could address the gap in the teachers' competencies through effective integration of content, knowledge, skills, technology, and pedagogy into the salient contextual aspects of the country's education sector, given the constraining shortage of ICT resources.

Integrating Computational Fabrication Methods with Architectural Education

Today, technology is developing rapidly. It changes architectural design and building techniques. To these changes up education system should be updated and be integrated with the novel technology. Tomorrow’s professionals only be educated with this way. To make novel technology a part of architectural education, computational fabrication laboratories should be established and be integrated with architectural curriculum. They have the potential to transform architectural education processes. Within this context, this study tries to integrate computational fabrication methods with architectural education. The aim of the study is to share the process and results of a series of exercises applied to the use of computational fabrication tools and methods at the undergraduate level of architectural education. The study deals with exercise processes in a multidimensional scope. In this framework, constructivist learning processes, the concept of metacognition, the flipped classroom model and portfolio evaluation method played a role in the creation and evaluation of the exercise processes. Integrating computational fabrication laboratories with educational processes brings the student to play an active role in the exercise process. This approach is defined as constructivist learning process. In this way, it is ensured that the students can construct their own thinking and understanding processes. While the verb "teaching" is in question in conventional or objectivist education processes, the verb "learning" comes to the fore in constructivist processes. The instructor does not give the information directly but directs the student to reach the information. Flipped classroom model and portfolio evaluation are used as the methods of this study. The background of the exercises is supported by constructivist learning processes and metacognition concept. Within the exercise processes computational fabrication processes such as CNC laser machining and robotic milling were experienced. Within this study four exercises were performed to make the students experience computational fabrication methods: Unfolding, Tessellation, Sectioning, Folding and Moulding. To evaluate the exercise series success portfolio evaluation method was used. The answers in the portfolio to the questions of “What is the aim of this study?” and “What did you learn from this study?” are compared with the aim and learning outcomes of the exercises. As a result of this study, it is seen that the students’ knowledge on file-to-factory process is increased. They learned how to make ready a parametric model for computational fabrication. Based on student portfolios, it has been determined that students have begun to realize the potentials of computational fabrication tools. The students learned how to use computer aided manufacturing software, and even they could manage to define toolpaths on their own. This shows that, undergraduate architectural education level is not early to teach students computational fabrication tools and software.

Critical Proximity

The architecture curriculum is usually divided into studio courses and lecture or seminar courses where design and research, respectively, are separately pursued. Although the curriculum is designed to unite the approaches of design, the humanities, and the sciences that together comprise the architectural endeavor, in practice these epistemological forms of inquiry are divided into separate courses and rarely allowed to crossover into one another. Two structures common to architecture programs avoid these divisions: the community design center and the research studio. The first unifies design with community engagement and exposure to the real-world issues of marginalized communities, while the second incorporates humanities-based research into the studio. In this paper, we will present the work of a three course-sequence recently taught at Miami University as a “Humanities Lab” that pursued methodological promiscuity by mixing community-based research and design. In so doing, we jettisoned the expertise traditionally claimed by architecture to create a more inclusive practice–inclusive of community members and their expertise and centering the experiences and histories of marginalized people instead of buildings. We do so by engaging in what Eyal Weizman has called “critical proximity,” in which the distanciated position of the researcher is jettisoned in favor of working alongside and for marginalized communities. Over the course of three semesters, we explored the impact of critical proximity in three different endeavors–a seminar, research studio, and exhibition design–and discovered inclusive pedagogical strategies: thickness, research-in-community, and decentered production. Together, these strategies allowed us to refigure the role of the architect as a researcher aligned with community interests.

Review: Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency

Review: <i>Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency</i>

An Assessment of Management Knowledge, Skills and Abilities of Nigerian Architects: Towards a Sustainable Management in Architectural Practice

Architecture is a profession and business outfit that is facing Management-related challenges at all levels. These problems manifest themselves in various forms ranging from inadequate curriculum coverage, insufficient literature, professional ineptitude, and leadership management competencies flaws to globalization challenges as well as low Architects population ratio among others. This paper assessed management-related knowledge, skills and abilities possessed by Nigerian Architects by using Relative Importance Index to determine areas that Nigerian Architects have competitive advantages or disadvantages. A structured survey questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale was administered to 122 randomly selected Architects, while descriptive statistical analysis provided answers to the research questions and hypothesis. Findings of the paper revealed that Nigerian Architects have Management know how in Design, Time and Project Managements but are lacking in Maintenance, Property and Enterprise Managements to bring about Sustainable Architectural Practice. The result of the study also upheld the null hypothesis that Management Knowledge, Skills and Abilities of Nigerian Architects does not depend on their Academic Qualifications but rejected the null hypothesis that Professional classifications of Nigerian Architects does not influence their Management Knowledge, Skills and Abilities. The paper concluded that Nigerian Architecture curriculum and practice are deficient in essential management knowhow to bring about sustainable Architectural Management practice in the country. The paper, therefore recommends that curriculum and practice of Architecture be rich in management theories and practices for a Sustainable Architectural practice in the country.

Unboxing Urban Infrastructure: Three Methodologies for infrastructure-oriented Urban Design and Architecture Education

Although the exploration of infrastructure has become a main focus of urban-centered studies and urban theory over the last decade, it has only been partially adopted into design and planning education. Here, the traditional curriculum of architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, and urban design offers emerging professionals limited guidance and tools for exploring and analyzing the complex assemblages and constituting systems that create, run, and shape cities. However, in times of dramatic need for systemic transformation, the critical and research-based analysis of the city’s externalities and the flows underlying urban life will become more relevant by the day. Thus, the following article outlines three teaching methodologies for analyzing “infrastructural regimes” as key levers and contexts to embed a reflected and responsive design work directed at transformation towards global sustainability.

Towards greater integration of building information modeling in the architectural design curriculum: A longitudinal case study

Building information modeling (BIM) has been a disruptive development in the global architecture, engineering, construction and operations (AECO) industry. While architecture schools have sought to integrate BIM into their curricula, most current pedagogical approaches and lessons are derived from engineering and construction management perspectives. There is a scarcity of investigations to monitor outcomes, reveal difficulties and articulate strategies for this context. This research explores how to better incorporate BIM into the architectural design curriculum. It does so by gathering pedagogical strategies, redesigning the curriculum and taking action in one of Thailand’s top architecture schools. The study reveals that treating BIM as a discrete topic in the architectural curriculum – where BIM is not so much the main focus, is misunderstood and is alleged to jeopardize creativity – is ineffective. Instead, infusing BIM learning modules throughout the existing curriculum structure, core design studio and supporting areas allows for the consistent and concurrent development of BIM skills and architectural knowledge. The concepts and practice examples developed in this research, along with feedback received and challenges met, constitute a valuable resource for further BIM-integrated architecture curriculum development. Future studies are recommended to improve BIM learning and advance the full potential of BIM in the education of next-generation architects.

Insight into Research Dilemma in Design Studios and Relationships with the Architecture Curriculum

Design studios play a significant role to train the students in architecture programs. Studios call as core modules in programs that are supposed to apply the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the students for the design’s topic, process, and project. However, the design process follows a tradition in studios based on project design than research activities. The research applied the qualitative content analysis method to analyze the design studio modules' descriptions. The finding of the research identifies that the content of the modules' descriptions does less adapt to research activities. Despite the inductive content explanations, the analysis activities are far from a comprehensive research approach due to the missing aspects in the content of the modules descriptions in the curriculum. In conclusion, research activity is an essential segment of architecture education that has been missing in the curriculum due to the time and location. However, complexity, uncertainty, and variety in the design context remind the necessity of integrating design studio with real-world studio activities through research orientation.

Inclusive Rural Spaces in Architecture Education

Pedagogies of building systems in architectural education are traditionally framed as the technical knowledge guiding construction, material applications, structures, and mechanical building services. This paper provides a framework and a case study for centering inclusive and universal design principles in the teaching of building systems with a focus on designing public spaces for rural and aging populations. It proposes methods for integrating design accountability, sustainable environmental practices, and cultural contexts into architectural design and education.Public spaces, services, and resources are spread thinly outside of cities and denser communities, creating barriers to access for aging populations among others. This pedagogical framework for inclusive rural architecture focuses on post offices as one of the few public institutions in rural communities and a vital conduit to essential services (particularly during health crises). In the speculative space of architecture curriculum, students conceived of additional services and programs to rethink the role of post offices in communities. These programs targeted accessibility barriers by providing digital resource centers, transportation hubs, and community gathering spaces.The flexibility, adaptability, and comfort at the core of universal design principles provide a lens for understanding sustainable environmental techniques. Adaptable buildings constructed with replaceable and reusable parts allow for repair and resiliency over time. Material and structural systems designed for intuitive use and presentation of information promote accessible communication. Passive systems design enables comfort in dialog with the environment and a reduction in required energy. However as passive systems often require building operability, inclusive design principles call for building systems to be operable by diverse users. Post office projects in this case study integrated universal design principles to achieve energy efficient buildings that respond to changing climates and rural cultural contexts.Replacing minimum standards for accessibility within curricula with inclusive design criteria is also enacted through methodologies. While educational institutions are clustered in urban areas, many students come from or have ties to rural communities. The focus on rural public spaces and aging populations is a means for students to bring their own diverse backgrounds, places of origin, and histories into their academic studies. In combining methods of engaged research with a universal design-focused pedagogy for building systems, students expand technical knowledge of architectural design with the objective of creating equitable and inclusive public spaces.&#x0D; &#x0D; Read the full article in accessible html-format here.

Learning by Doing: Integrating Shape Grammar as a Visual Coding Tool in Architectural Curricula

Computational design and shape grammars hold a growing appeal in the architectural curricula. This paper aims to assess shape grammars as a visual teaching method that integrates manual exploration based on “learning by doing” in early education curricula without digital software. As a primary outcome of a visual design course at the British university in Egypt, four self-structured pavilions are fabricated by first-year architecture students. Experimentation occurs through a process of visual computing which develops a deeper understanding of material qualities. A comparison of design parameters is conducted through hands-on experiments that include design principles, unit transformations, connection types, assembly process, and functional aspects. The paper examines the skills that students acquired during the course. This study concludes that by applying shape grammars in design studios, students are adequately prepared at the foundational level for their transition towards learning computational design.

Precedent Study: An Approach to Learning about Design Challenges in Architectural Studio Pedagogy

The Application of precedents in the Instruction of Architecture Studio is an essential but frequently miscalculated component of the architecture curriculum. The Architectural Design process is an ever-evolving phenomenon. Concrete examples help to establish this evolution that includes the detailed study of Precedents. It is found that there is a connection between architectural design studio pedagogy and precedent study by thoroughly analyzing previously published literature. Since the precedents serve as the basis for further research, appropriate solutions are sought to increase relevance and performance. Therefore, Precedent-based instruction is the most effective teaching method in an Architectural design studio. This study has identified a few frequent errors when performing precedent studies, i.e., romanticizing decisions in Precedent Studies, neglecting Context, and shallow appreciation without a systematic way. This study offers potential for further research to devise an appropriate tool to conduct an analytical study of precedents to avoid falsification and non-contextual solutions.

Exploring immersive learning technology as learning tools in experiential learning for architecture design education

PurposeFormal architecture curriculum necessitates students to observe their architectural experience and environment, which cannot be comprehended entirely in a classroom alone. However, complications in handling site visits and the Covid-19 pandemic can affect their overall learning experience. This study seeks to uncover (1) how a learning tool can be designed to actively enrich novice designers' personal spatial understanding and (2) how will the experiential learning (EL) with immersive learning technology (ILT) replace the actual concrete experience (CE) in enriching the novice designers' personal spatial experience during the architecture design process.Design/methodology/approachThe current research focuses on novice designers (first-year architecture students) who seem to lack personal spatial experience. Findings from a personal spatial experience survey (PSES) conducted in the earlier stage of the research established that each learner had had a different level of spatial experience, which affected their approach in the design process. A learning tool called Architectural Spatial Experience Simulation (ASES) was designed, developed, implemented and evaluated with an experiential learning model (ELM) framework.FindingsThe findings suggest that the use of ASES in the ELM significantly increased the learners' spatial experience. However, the simulation and framework demonstrated a different effect on the participants' spatial experience, particularly on learners with minimal spatial experience.Originality/valueThis study benefits the architecture learning process by providing a tool and a framework to remedy the emerging issue concerning novice designers. The finding contributes to the body of knowledge by expanding the application of EL theory in architecture education.

On the Opportunities of the Soundscape Approach to Revitalise Acoustics Training in Undergraduate Architectural Courses

Soundscape research has been gaining prominence in studies on the built environment. The soundscape concept is defined as the acoustic environment as perceived and/or understood by a person in context. Compared with traditional building acoustics, the soundscape concept brings interesting perspectives—but also challenges—for undergraduate architectural curricula, where it tries to strike a balance between qualitative and quantitative methodologies, a theoretical approach that in the context of soundscape studies it is often referred to as ‘triangulation’. Starting from real-world higher education courses, the aim of this paper is to examine how the soundscape approach can be integrated into teaching building acoustics at the undergraduate level in architectural courses. Methods such as soundwalks, acoustic measurements, and computational simulations that are commonly used in soundscape research are introduced in educational projects as tools for students to experience, analyse, and articulate the narrative around the sound environment to inform their design concepts and details.

Performance-based identity in a BIM environment: an architect's perceptions and experiences

PurposeInterpreting the meaning structure of architects' actions, behaviours and performances enacted in a building information modelling (BIM) environment is implausible by returning to the classic and ideal imagery of an architect as a natural leader. Yet, little has been empirically explored on how architects perceive their identity and most critically, how they act, behave and perform their way into it in such an environment. Consequently, architects' failing to adapt their core identity to the varying circumstances may lead to their irrelevance and being side-lined merely as aesthetic building surgeons. The current study therefore seeks a better understanding of their perceptions and experiences in manifesting their identities in the phenomenon.Design/methodology/approachDrawing upon the interpretive phenomenological approach, ten architectural trained individuals were selected for in-depth, semi-structured interviews, and written accounts exercise to disclose their lived experience. The study was conducted in a Malaysian architectural consultancy practice (ACP) setting.FindingsThe data analysis resulted in the following five performance identity themes that revolve around the core identity of a successful designer: “performing as a design strategist”, “performing as a design translator”, “performing as a design facilitator”, “reinstating the identity of a design coordinator” and “performing as a design innovator”.Practical implicationsThe study serves as groundwork for professional institutional bodies to further reconstruct a career road map alongside the professional development framework towards elevating, developing and facilitating the hybridity of architects' performance identities in such environment.Social implicationsThe study serves as a groundwork for professional institutional bodies to reconstruct the existing continuing professional development (CPD) programmes, materials and framework so that they reflect the performances of future architects practicing in a BIM environment. The elicited experiences may also inform architectural curriculum designers of the appropriate approaches of teaching and learning in architecture that could promote the hybridity of architects' performance identities in such an environment.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the identity literature by yielding valuable new insights about the experiences and behaviour of architects practicing in a BIM environment. Understanding such complexity would not be possible merely based on the theoretical lenses of professional identity and organisational identification as adopted in previous studies.