Action-Oriented Design Bridging the Gap between Teaching and Practicethrough the Application of Action-Oriented Design Methodology

The current trend in architectural design pedagogy favors research and innovation that pushes the field into new territories by triggering exciting debates and encouraging new speculative design experimentation. This can be attributed to the enormous increase in the mobility and accessibility of information. Internet and mobility have overwhelmed our design studios with data from different cultures and technologies, thus providing limitless possibilities and opportunities to students and teachers alike. However, architectural practice on the ground is hardly capable of keeping up with the fast-paced nature of academic innovation today because the highly experimental and speculative approaches powering these designs do not often consider the reality of constraints posed by factors such as budget, program, construction feasibility, or building law. It therefore can be argued that there is a growing gap between academia and the profession in architecture today.This paper therefore aims to introduce and discuss the benefits of action-oriented design methodology as opportunity in bridging the gap between pedagogy and practice. Applied successfully to Design Impact Laboratory (DI-Lab) at the American University of Beirut, such models bring innovative conceptual design work to life through its context in academia. Established in 2016 with the purpose of allowing design innovation to inform community-based projects, DI-Lab has since involved over fifty students in the design and execution of highly innovative, socially conscious projects.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Teach.2019.60

Volume Editors
Richard Blythe & Johan De Walsche

ISBN
978-1-944214-23-4