This article explores an intellectual disconnection in architectural education about the conception of wood as a building material. It explores initiatives to develop in future architects a deeper consciousness of the complex ecology of timber, promoting its sustainable use in the building industry. It explores six case studies drawn from…

Architecture is never fixed: buildings and (urban) spaces change as their use(r)s and contexts change over time. Even when architectural projects receive recognition of their dynamic nature, it remains unclear how to deal with this during design processes. The need for sustainable building raises interest in this topic in architecture research.…

The use of technology in education has experienced a remarkable upswing in recent years, largely due to the integration of computer hardware into classrooms and the use of mobile devices such as smartphones. One aspect of this development is the proliferation of augmented reality (AR) in education, which has been shown to support teaching and…

Architectural education shares much in common with engineering, including the use of a culminating capstone experience in the final year. The form of this experience varies, with the research-based thesis and final-year project being most common. This paper explores the literature on traditions of enquiry and the meaning of research in various…

This paper explores the notion of "productive risk" as a way of understanding how diverse students can become re-makers of landscape architectural design practices and education. We trace the design trajectories of two first-year students at a South African tertiary institution and examine how the students negotiate the risk of drawing…

Based on an ethnographic study on studio teaching at five leading European architecture schools, the paper at hand identifies three repeatedly occurring deficiencies (as well as one related problem) in the teaching of architectural design. Drawing on empirical data, the paper describes how 'epistemic positions' are shifted without reflection, that…

Extended Curriculum Programmes have a responsibility to validate the resources and experiences students bring to their learning environment. However, designing assessment practices that encourage diverse students to draw on their resources in order to both access and challenge disciplinary discourses can be complex. This article is framed in terms…

This paper argues that in undergraduate architectural design education, professional learning and the formation of casual academics as university educators occur while 'situated' in tutorials through design conversations with students and as-needed chats with colleagues. For casual academics, such disciplinary, routine, and informal activities…

Basic Design is the beginning of design course series in architectural education which initiates architecture students to both architectural education and the profession. First-year design curricula have generally common goals of students' acquisitions about design knowledge, skill and competence; however, ways of teaching may vary. Here, we…

This chapter provides a situated analysis of an architectural research team engaging in prototype driven experimentation. These experiments are meant to both expand the researcher's own understandings of design as well as contribute to ongoing debates in the field of architectural research and education. The chapter draws on video analysis of…

This article explores the wide-ranging impact of inviting architecture students to increase conscious somatic awareness of their body and function, and the effects on their design process. This paper analyses the results of a Movement Awareness Intervention conducted prior to students undertaking their usual architectural design studio at the…

In this article it is argued that, through adjustment of the point of view from which history is taught and theorised in architecture schools, grand narratives of progress can be critiqued and manipulated at a structural level. This could provide more lasting transformative practices than those produced by attempts to subvert such narratives by…

As digital media have become more embedded in all aspects of architects' design and representational work, a gap has been identified between architectural practices and the ways in which architecture is presented in museum exhibitions, which often rely on traditional media. In this chapter, we study digital creative processes in an architect firm,…

This paper outlines the result of an innovative program to develop a competency-based curriculum and a work process to engage students in energy assessment of small commercial buildings in their community. Throughout the resulting course, "Leadership in Building Energy Efficiency (LBEE)," students were trained to gather buildings'…

South African education is in crisis, which also presents an opportunity for innovation and experimentation. This paper describes and analyses one such pedagogical experiment with a combined class of Architecture and Applied Theatre students from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. Students were taken through a critical…