“Field Guide” as a Catalyst for Student-Initiated Design-Build Research

This process account demonstrates how a student-led, peer-to-peer learning design-build initiative is transforming the academic experience at Waterloo Architecture. The paper outlines how F_RMlab (Fabrication through Research and Media)—a research collective founded by a core group of graduate students in Waterloo’s self-directed masters program—is acquiring agency and resources for advanced computational design through the analysis of Field Guide, a responsive ceiling canopy.F_RMlab reflects the student body’s interest in having customizable academic experience whose curriculum is faceted and flexible. Using student-initiated design-build projects as a means to catalyze research and broaden technical skill-sets, F_RMlab aims to improve the proliferation of computation skills in architectural pedagogy. This is cultivated by a keen student awareness of professional practice, a skill honed in the undergraduate program’s co-operative work placements. F_RMlab recognizes design-build projects as a valuable platform for experimentation and aims to activate relationships between digital and physical craft modalities while fostering innovative and entrepreneurial attitudes. In this manner, F_RMlab uses a design-build model to enable a horizontal student-led model of peer-to-peer learning.The paper will outline how Field Guide, a responsive textile canopy system serves as a critical assessment for establishing the pedagogical success of F_RMlab. The ongoing development of the project has shown to empower students with critical modes of thinking and experimenting within an adaptive learning model. The model has allowed for a broad range of theoretical and technical investigations as well as an opportunity to carve out an individualized educational path whilst being an active contributor in knowledge sharing. Through knowledge exchange, community outreach and learning-through-making, F_RMlab enables students to confront multivalent challenges that a designer must face when projects move beyond concept and into the construction and craft of a built work. By treating each project as a collective prototype, a continual and peer-to-peer exploration of computational thinking and responsive architecture is fostered. F_RMlab has in effect provided an additional academic resource, which includes the accessibility of computational research and deliberate infusion of design-build projects into the informal learning practice at Waterloo Architecture.The paper outlines the two major strategies of F_RMlab that enable the group to function as a student-led initiative. First is the concept of an adaptable organizational structure designed to support a myriad of investigations. The second strategy is the importance of inclusivity within the organization. Through the explanation of these strategies, peer-to-peer learning is understood to be the main pillar of F_RMlab.Field Guide is a testament to the opportunity offered by a student-driven design build project that is focused on developing the skill sets of its participants all participants while being positioned at the periphery of a prescribed curriculum. The account overviews F_RMlab as a collective and introduces its educational context,while referring to growing theoretical works on the topic of ‘research by design’. Field Guide offers an opportunity to critically evaluate F_RMlab’s constantly evolving methods and strategies in order to perform as a robust student-directed, computational design-build-research group.

Volume Editors
Sergio Palleroni, Ted Cavanagh & Ursula Hartig

ISBN
978-0-935502-94-7