Studio Project Research Articles

Integrating Artificial Intelligence in Interior Design Education: Concept Development

This article aims to explore the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) as a design tool in interior design education. The research examines the students' interior design studio project outcomes over the usage of AI in creating conceptual images, and the implementation of the AI-created concept to the overall space. In the research, students' projects are divided into two groups of 5 according to sufficient or insufficient prompts for the "AI generated" conceptual images. Barnard's (1992) CAIDC (Consensual Assessment of Interior Design Creativity) scale was used for the assessment. Mann-Whitney U Test was conducted for the results. We understand that there is no significant difference between writing sufficient or insufficient prompts in the concept development phase of interior design projects according to the Barnard (1992)’s design merits. It has been confirmed that the main factor that influences this regard is the need for an appropriate "concept analysis" to adapt the concept generated with AI to the specified project spaces.

The Arthur Miller Writing Studio Project: Roxbury, Connecticut

The Arthur Miller Writing Studio Project: Roxbury, Connecticut

Waewae Taku Haere

The sites of spatial design practice are storied landscapes. Most spatial design projects begin with site analysis — a research process of coming to ‘know’ site, context, parameters, and opportunities. Even more fundamental is a process of listening; of attuning. In colonised countries such as Aotearoa New Zealand, the contexts of site include histories of colonisation and the marginalised stories of the Indigenous peoples whose lands, place names, and histories are often overwritten by settler-colonial stories, education systems, and built environments. How might spatial designers attune to Indigenous stories in the land? What new processes, modes, relationships, and understandings are required? How and to what extent should those who are not mana whenua (tribal groups with local territorial rights, relationships, and responsibilities) have access to this knowledge, often located within oral traditions of story and song? How do we prepare to work with these stories — a journey often filled with uncertainty and emotion — and keep ourselves and others safe throughout the process? These are essential skills for spatial designers in a decolonising/reindigenising world. This text-based research essay constitutes a journey of critical reflection and conversation around an experimental studio project the authors ran with third-year undergraduate spatial design students. Led by tangata whenua (Māori), tangata Tiriti (non-Māori treaty partner), and mana whenua researchers, the project was conducted within a bicultural framework informed by mātauranga and tikanga Māori (Māori knowledge systems and protocols). Students were introduced to a waiata pātere — a Māori chant that ‘maps’ places in a landscape — that had been composed for our learning community. They employed embodied methods of research and representation to generate immersive experiences that responded to the pātere and the stories in the land, as a way of coming to belong to, rather than to ‘know’, place.

Highlighting Community and Identity through an Online Interior Architecture Studio Project: Ambassador’s Residence Project

Within the confines of the COVID-19 pandemic, design educators were required to revisit tried and true ways of teaching and create original ways to connect with their students. In this paper, the aim is to achieve the sense of global interiors community in online teaching regarding teaching methods as well as project topics. Moreover, various means by which an enhanced studio experience may be provided is investigated. The year-long project with a focus on “concept building”, benefited from a variety of approaches and resources that is believed to enrich the overall experience. One of the first aims was to enable a sense of connection and community at a time of detachment. This was achieved in a number of ways; the first step was through requiring students to work in teams of two. The second step was to use the opportunities of online education to the full extent. In this sense, both national and international guests were invited to the studio for lectures and critiques. Lastly, on special days such as the IFI (International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers) World Interiors Day and juries, both national and international guests were invited to the studio to share experiences with students that were shared on international platforms. Through an ambassador’s residence project, second-year interior architecture students were able to experience aspects of their profession in an international environment. An enriched experience both in terms of structure and content was aimed to be achieved and the projects reflected these aims. The selected projects portrayed in the paper answer the requirements in full, are parallel to the context, and reflect the key criteria of the project. A questionnaire was applied to the participating students to gather deeper insight into their studio experience. Limitations include the number of participant students, and thus, further studies may include larger groups of students, national and international comparisons of experiences as well as studio output. Despite the large-scale catastrophe, findings show the benefits of increased online interiors community activity in the experience of the students as well as being reflected positively to their projects. These events have also benefited the instructors’ connection to the studio. Overall, the interior design studio is a dynamic environment that needs constant research into its pedagogy, content, and overall experience, as the educational environment moves swiftly to online direction.

Best Practice Towards Sustainability Development in Politeknik Sultan Idris Shah

Sustainability balances environmental, economic, and social issues. It’s the concept that humans can live and flourish in nature. To put it another way, it’s the idea that everything humans need to survive and thrive is provided by the natural world in some ways. To ensure peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were created as a reference. Because of this, the Department of Polytechnic and Community College Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia has initiated to introduce the Blueprint SmartGreen Polytechnic & Community College 2021-2026 (BSGPC), which is provides for a more all-encompassing coverage by placing special emphasis on the 17 SDGs. By encouraging eco-friendly practices at universities and colleges, it may help the country achieve its sustainable development goals. Towards the empowerment of green culture, Politeknik Sultan Idris Shah (PSIS) has embraced numerous best practices such as organizing the PSIS Green Campus Programme, Green Studio Project, and the latest Aquaponic with Solar System project. Therefore, the PSIS SmartGreen Committee leads to the involvement of PSIS in UI GreenMetric where there is a rise in success in the global university ranking.

The remote studio: Enabling higher quality teaching and learning resource creation in satellite campuses and increasing equity

Satellite campuses have had varying success with some being in a state of decay (Fraser & Stott, 2015, p. 79). The distribution of resources is often contentious. Learning within these environments can be an underwhelming experience and students complain about unequitable learning experiences compared with their parent campus cousins. These frustrations are compounded with the costs of studying being the same (Fraser & Stott, 2015, p. 81). Another concern is that satellite campuses have a higher percentage of low socio-economic students (Ballantyne as cited in Craft, 2019, p. 1372). This is only going to rise with the Australian government enacting a recommendation from the Bradley review to increase this to 20% (Craft, 2019, p. 1372). Some of the most vulnerable students will be at a greater risk of receiving sub-optimal education. The authors are a part of a small, centralised media production team looking to reduce such risks by utilising their area of expertise. Distance posed a challenge in providing equitable services to one satellite campus at their institution. Academics did not see the value of driving an hour each way to record content that could sometimes take 5 minutes. Initial video production DIY setups were implemented but had low adoption, poor quality and were plagued with technical issues. In response a remote studio was proposed and funding became available to turn this concept into a reality. In the design of this studio, an important emphasis was placed on creating an equitable experience for academics who would use the space. This studio was required to have all the features of the central campus studio. It needed to be highly configurable so that a variety of recording options could be possible. This included recording pieces to camera with curtains or virtual backgrounds, teleprompter support, interview format, slide presentations with picture in picture and touch screen stylus functionality. This would enable the creation of best practice multimedia informed by key researchers such as Richard Mayer (2012) which had already been proven in the central studio. Other areas of research that informed the design included educator presence (Swan, Garrison, & Richardson, 2009), visibility (Pi et al, 2020), delivery techniques and duration (Guo, Kim, & Rubin, 2014). A point of difference for this studio was that it needed to be fully remotely operated. This objective proved to be the most challenging aspect which required a large amount of research, liaising with suppliers, contractors, and IT. These challenges were ultimately overcome, and a highly functional remote studio was established. After the successful launch and trial of this studio, a similar remote studio was constructed at another satellite campus. These studios have recorded approximately 500 videos across dozens of courses and have provided enhanced learning opportunities for many students. Qualitative feedback from teaching staff of the room has been overwhelmingly positive. The remote studio project was an ambitious and unprecedented undertaking. This experience can be used by other institutions as a blueprint when negotiating the same types of equability issues across multiple campuses.

New Strategies and Practices of Design Education Under the Background of Artificial Intelligence Technology: Online Animation Design Studio.

This study is based on the background of how artificial intelligence (AI) technology is applied to the field of creativity and design education to improve the design vision, teaching methods, and actual design productivity of practitioners. The purpose of the research is to compare traditional design education and new design education methods combined with AI technology. Taking the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) technology integration model as the starting point, a comprehensive evaluation is selected for different types of research to explore the animation design professional courses in design education, the content of students’ perception preferences, and the evaluation of ease of learning so as to conduct research and analyze AI technology. Design new education strategies and practice methods under the background. In the research, a comparative experimental study was conducted on 40 first-year students majoring in animation design. The results show that through online design studio project practice, with personalized project learning guidance, the learning needs of students to show a better trend, and customized learning and project practice content can enhance the learning experience and performance of students. In the future, we can further expand the scope of analysis, include more case studies, and conduct more comprehensive research, including how to deal with the expansion of the platform for students’ learning of design in situations similar to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that profoundly affects our lives, and how the project is applied in practice.

Songwriting, professional studio recording, and a CD release party: Interviews with two adults with mental health conditions

Through attaining a small university grant, I was able to fund a studio recording project of original compositions written in music therapy sessions at a local mental health organization and then provide members with a CD release party to showcase their work. I was interested in exploring the members’ experiences of songwriting, recording in a professional studio, and having a CD release party. I therefore conducted individual semi-structured interviews with two adult members who participated in the project and used an inductive approach to thematic analysis to analyze data. The participating music therapist verified the seven themes resultant of data analyses: Commitment to songwriting despite challenges; Valued collaborating with a professional musician and qualified music therapist; Anticipated future songwriting; Desire to deliver an inspirational message through songwriting; Songwriting benefits included pride, mood, self-expression, and accomplishment; Enjoyed the novel studio recording experience; and Positive experience at the CD release party. Emerging themes indicated that songwriting and recording were challenging yet rewarding experiences that the members took seriously. Implications for clinical practice, limitations, and suggestions for future research are provided.

The Nine-Square Grid

Directly influenced by Colin Rowe’s essay “Mathematics of the Ideal Villa” (1947) and the Warburgian art historical tradition, John Hejduk’s nine-square grid studio exercise had an ambiguous relation to the instrumentality of architectural history. When the nine-square grid exercise was copied in many architecture schools around the world as a first-year studio project, initiating the novice student in the realm of architectural composition, the pedagogical interpretation of its relation to architectural history varied. This paper questions the relational model of architectural history to practice in the nine-square grid exercise, and subsequently investigates the reuse and reinterpretation of the exercise at the Versailles school and at Ghent University in the 1980s. It proposes a reading of the survival and return of this diagrammatic figure in studio pedagogy and villa architecture in the late twentieth century by reckoning with the history of its self-referentiality and the temporality of lateness.

Factors and Problems Contributing to the Burdensome Workload of Architecture Students in Universities

There is an issue of architecture students in Malaysia public universities burdened with design studio project. A study from a sample of 217 students shows 50 percent are at high levels of burden proving that these architecture students are very burdened with the projects given during the semester while the other 50 percent are at moderate level. Therefore, the study aims to identify factors affecting the burdensome workload of architecture students during their studies and identifying the problems faced by the architecture students during their studies. Researcher used qualitative research approaches based on literature reviews. The information is based on previous studies related to the field of research conducted by the researcher. Based on the research conducted, the researchers concluded that there are 4 main factors contributing to the burden of architecture students in their studies which are the student, lecturers, curriculum and facilities. Meanwhile, the identified problems faced by architecture students throughout their study are time management, cost of living, social relationships and attitudes. Based on the literature review conducted, it is important for the public to know the real situation of architecture students in Malaysia toward improving their mental health and to give a clear picture to the institution about the effects and consequences that the students have to bear if this mental health problem are silenced from public and considered unimportant.

Living theatrical approach to creative placemaking: the case of Xisan Film Studio project in China

ABSTRACT This paper looks into a type of creative placemaking that is informed by socially engaged art and makes inquiries about the theatrical approaches to transforming spaces into places. Existing studies typically analyze theatrical approaches from the perspective of a single scenario while overlooking the scenario-to-scenario perspective. Underpinned by the conceptual framework of cultural rhizome, this study examines the Xisan Film Studio project in Guangzhou, China, and addresses the nexus between scenario network assembly and place creation. The findings demonstrate the approach to construct scenarios in symbiosis with everyday life, which catalyze everyday practices informed by individual expression to make a place.

TRNSYS simulation of desiccant integrated hybrid cooling and dehumidification system

The traditional air conditioners suffer from performance degradation especially in humid conditions. This is due to fact that the excess moisture level in ventilation air considerably increases latent cooling load of the space to be conditioned. The use of desiccant integrated sensible cooling system can alleviate this problem by controlling the temperature and humidity separately. It also reduces energy consumption for obtaining desired thermal comfort. In the present study, TRNSYS simulation studio project has been developed to perform the simulations of the desiccant dehumidifier coupled HVAC system for different configurations in summer cooling season. Measurements are also carried out to observe the influence of operating parameters on system performance. The obtained results show that the proposed system has ensured a substantial reduction in process air humidity at dehumidifier exit while maintaining the conditioned room comfort.

Decoding and recoding informal settlements in a design studio: an overview of the world studio project

The world is experiencing a surge in its urban population accompanied by rapidly advancing urbanization processes. Contemporary cities are witnessing the rise of numerous urban and social problems, leading, in turn, to the emergence of informal settlements. In response, computational and parametric resources are increasingly being adopted to create innovative and effective approaches to urban planning and design. These resources can be used in informal settlements to improve urban quality without losing their essential features. This paper describes the World Studio, a teaching experience that began in 2017 and continues in the present day, in which undergraduate architecture and landscape architecture students learn how to use shape grammars and parametric tools to design for informal settlements in international contexts (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Ahmedabad, India, to date).

Lived Experience as a Basis for Design: A Design Studio Kindergarten Project

This research is motivated by our belief that artistic practices have a great potential for exchange and so can promote innovations in the creative processes. In particular, we are interested in how the corporeal lived experience can be integrated into the design process and used as a conceptual basis for an architectural design. Within this article, we propose an interdisciplinary approach to architectural design that includes somatic exercises taken from dance, and associated with a phenomenological recollection of the experiences in space. At the same time, in teaching, we recognize the challenge of bringing the design process closer to the secondsemester architecture students of the Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts. The research was carried out as part of a studio project which focused on the design of a kindergarten. We found that the corporeal approach to design helped the students to immerse themselves in the role of the different users, and so relate to the design in an intimate way. Consequently, the designs were surprisingly imaginative and showed a considerable variation in typology.

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON DESIGN PROCESS IN ARCHITECTURE: PERSPECTIVE OF CREATIVITY

Any design challenge could be solved by identifying systemic complexity in the issue before following any problem-solving process. Designers approach problems in different forms but historically worked effectively to build a template or phase sequence. The design process can be used by designers virtually in any project which plays a crucial role in designing innovative architectural projects for many architects. Many studies were conducted to analyze, review, compare and recommend several creative approaches to problem management that allow designers to recognize their work and propose new solutions. However, there are not many studies on the stages to follow to undergo a comprehensive design process in architecture. This study aims to review the various stages involved in the design process. Firstly, it addresses the conceptualization phase of design critically examining the creativity and ideation process with creative and strategic thinking. Secondly, it discusses the representation of the design process expressing through storyboards and animatic, computer-aided design and building information modeling, and virtual reality and augmented environments. Thirdly, it discusses design assessment stage where the techniques for assessment of creativity in design and simulation for analyzing users’ perspective is explained. In the conclusions of the paper, a discussion has been made on an inter-relationship between the various stages in the design process and its relevance for a comprehensive understanding of the architectural integrative design process to address any design challenge both as a studio project for architecture students or in live projects by the practicing architects.

Reframing Architecture through Design

Reframing Architecture through Design

Vocal Arrangements: Technology, Aurality, and Authority in Qur'anic Recording

AbstractThis article uses ethnography of a studio recording project underway at a Qur'anic school in Salé, Morocco, to offer new insight on sound, media, and religious authority in Islamic contexts. The aim of the project is to record the entire Qur'an incorporating all of its seven canonical, variant readings (qirā’āt), which are enjoying a small renaissance in Morocco. Several of the school's faculty, known as shaykhs, engaged as expert listeners and overseers of the process. I show how a historical model of such expert listenership, which I call “aural authority,” is transformed by the technologies of the studio and then dispersed across a collective of productive agents that includes the reciter and the sound engineer. I argue that these transformations, along with erasure of the shaykh's role from the medium of circulation—the recording—presents significant challenges to the broaderqirā’āttradition and raises questions about its future.

Re-narrated Stories: A Reflection on Narrative Learning in a First Year Design Studio

This paper explores the implementation of narrative learning in first-year architectural design studios and how it can amplify the making, communicating and reflecting aspects of the study. In particular, this paper examines the estrangement technique, which enables an objective view of a story and its telling. The technique allows the students to detach an existing narrative from its context to be analysed, and then recontextualise it. We focus on the main studio project for the first-semester architecture and interior architecture students in Universitas Indonesia as the context of this study. This paper analyses their process, final outputs, and feedback to see the lesson learned from their perspective. The study suggests that learning narrative framework in architectural design studio supports the students to think systematically. In the end, estrangement technique provides the students with a way to retain some aspects of a narrative while playing with others, producing a fresh view on telling stories through enhancing their ambiguity and interaction between design author and their audience.

Post-COVID-19 Sustainable Architecture Design Studio

COVID-19 outbreak has set the beginning of new normal in many parts of the world. The impact of COVID-19 was recognized in all sectors, including higher education. Many new ways of teaching and learning are taking place. Despite lockdowns and social distancing that transformed on-site classrooms to online classrooms, architecture design studio programs should also adapt and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as contribute to society by taking the real-world projects. The architectural program of the Department of Building Innovation, Faculty of Architecture, Kasetsart University in Bangkok took the initiative in designing studio project programs to acknowledge the new normal. The programs were assigned to 2nd-year Sustainable Architecture Design Studio during the 1st semester (July-November) of the academic year 2020. Physical distancing, passive design, especially ventilation strategies, were the focus. Means to prove design performance include calculation and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. The paper shows results of the post-COVID-19 eco canteen and 50-bed hospital design programs.

Pedagogy + Reflection: A Problem-Based Learning Case in Interior Design

Interior design education aims to provide students with real learning experiences. The authors, hence, combined problem-based learning (PBL) and design thinking to design a seven-week studio project in the Interior design program at a land-grant Midwest university. Thirty-two sophomores were engaged in different stages of the design process for the education wing of Minnesota’s official natural history museum in collaboration with Perkins+ Will, a global architecture and design firm. Students explored design thinking via interactions with stakeholders and practitioners who participated in the creation of the Museum. This approach allowed students to gain insights about the design challenge plus the pros and cons of their solutions. For seven weeks, students in teams of three immersed themselves in a diverse and real design environment. They learned how to communicate, collaborate, and compromise to accomplish the common goal of finding the most relevant solution for the design problem at hand. The authors collected students’ reflections on their learning experiences at the end of the project. This paper discusses the lessons we learned from this interior design PBL case.