An Alternative Model for Undergraduate Thesis Instruction: Using Collaborative Full-Scale Design Exercises to Supplement Individual Research Projects

This presentation will examine a pilot undergraduate thesis studio thatsynthetically combined three course typologies – studio, workshop, andseminar – into a rich and investigatory environment. Design explorations,material prototyping, and theoretical frameworks were pursued simultaneouslytowards the completion of a comprehensive thesis design project. Desiredlearning outcomes for the studio included: working and thinking in acontemporary manner (collectively, projective, atmospheric, diagrammatic),establishing an architectural agenda (an interest, topic, position, approach),ability to test design performance using full-scale models and to make necessarydesign adjustments (prototyping, installations, information feedbackloops, digital fabrication), to design with consideration of an event (implicitor explicit activity, programmatic relationships, movement or flows), and theability to produce affective environments (atmosphere, affects, materials ofsensation, spatial experience).The studio promoted a contemporary approach to architectural design – designresearch – with special emphasis on the creation of affective environments.Design research is an approach to design based on a series of calculateddesign experiments that are begun with a clear definition of projectgoal(s). In academia, many courses that conduct material research takethe form of a seminar or workshop, in which the research (research throughmaking) is linked to a particular tool or technique from the outset. However,a design as research pedagogy is more effective in promoting the use offull-scale constructs to influence the development of a design concept if itis employed in the context of a design studio and linked with a particularproject. In this new context, material investigations instead operate in asupporting role and are tied to the goals of a specific project. The tool,technique, and method are selected in support of a concept; this approachavoids developing a product whose qualities are limited or predetermined bya preselected tool and technique. By incorporating full-scale investigations(prototyping) of material and atmospheric effects into the studio designprocess, the production techniques and strategies become more varied betweenprojects inasmuch as their selection of a tool, technique, or methodis concept based towards achieving a desired affect. Students pursued acollective design agenda concerned with the creation of charged and activespaces in which the occupants are not passive recipients of information butare actively contributing to the production of affects. Spaces best describedas affective environments. In this pursuit the studio shifted its interest awayfrom the standard production of objects and towards the production of atmospheresand effects. The production of atmospheres and architecturaleffects required students to work with real or intended materials and environmentalconditions at or near full-scale in order to properly understandand experience a material’s qualities and sensory affects. Students learnedhow to design and employ architectural effects through a series of exercisesincluding: studio installations, small group material effects prototypes, andindividual material effects prototypes. These full-scale exercises cultivatedan awareness and ability to construct a spatial experience that emphasizesmateriality, perception, and atmosphere.

Volume Editors
Martha Thorne & Xavier Costa

ISBN
978-0-935502-83-1