Syndicating the Design Studio: Experimental & Virtual Design Studios

Can a virtual design studio compliment or possibly replace traditional design teaching?

Lee Gibson (VUW)

What is it about?

The design studio and studio teaching is at the core of the work of Architecture and Design Schools all over the world. With an increased focus on resources, and the change in the environmental pressures that the average student faces on a daily basis (work/study/life-balance), can an online teaching environment implementing social networking be leveraged to support design studio teaching and learning?

This research outlines the structure of two courses delivered as part of the first year design programme at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. The courses were 'Rapid Visualisation – an introduction to drawing that is traditionally a studio based course', and 'Digital Creation - introduction to digital manufacturing that has been historically a digital/virtual course'. The research investigates the way that particular concepts were delivered, the role that the online studio took within the practice, and how this developed differently across the two courses.

It is predicted that short experimental projects that led into major coursework were very effective at developing commitment to research, the brief and the relevant learning objectives, and had the additional benefit of exposing students to practices similar to actual design studio scenarios. The ability to share and comment freely (under a broad framework of acceptable practice) is also predicted to aid student learning and development.

Why is it important?

I am primarily interested in this research as I see the opportunity for the development of online learning strategies to improve student engagement, and overall performance for studio-based/lab-based disciplines in tertiary education.  While I strongly believe that the core of studio teaching that demands one-on-one interaction between staff and students is critical and impossible to replace with any current technology or system, there is a clear opportunity to leverage online learning environments to support our current approaches to the traditional design studio. 

An added incentive is the current pressure that design disciplines face in terms of resources (eg. contract staff, studio space) within the University funding structure, and the wider Government funding regime.

Current perception of some of the online activities and strategies available are seen as interesting, but somehow not relevant to our practice of design, and some techniques are utilised due to trend without truly understanding the implications and/or the benefits that these have on our teaching and learning.  They also present some barriers to entry in terms of perceived ‘ease-of-use’ (students and staff), as the perceived effort is seen as being much larger than any potential benefits.

How the session will run?   Workshop/Discussion

The session will begin with a presentation (projection if possible) of the courses and their structure, which will show examples of how social networking sites/applications have been harnessed to augment traditional studio practices. (20mins)

Depending on resources (laptop/wi-fi availability) the session would then move to a mini-workshop where individuals or small groups (2-3) would create their own micro-blog (eg. http://www.tumblr.com or http://www.posterous.com ) that documents a suggested process/design from beginning to end to create an ‘open on-line narrative’ for review by the group.  (20mins)

The session would be closed with an open discussion on the research project. (20mins)