Change, Architecture, Education, Practice

How Can Students Learn to Integrate Form and Construction?

International Proceedings

Author(s): Karel Vandenhende

Most design assignments in architecture schools are copies of typical assignmentsin an architecture practice. They start with the first sketches,which are further developed in a preliminary design, and end with workingdrawings and design details. This sequence works for someone who mastersall the aspects of architecture, and therefore can foresee the consequencesfor the realisation of a preliminary design sketch. But this is not the case forbeginning architecture students; for whom the construction often turns outat the end of the design process as a choice of the less disturbing structureto realize their designed form.This lack of integration makes good architecture impossible, because earlierresearch proves that in good architecture, more satisfactory solutions encompassmore topics of the stated problem at the same time. So these goodsolutions integrate many topics, including form and construction.A literature review on didactics brings up 3 interesting strategies to counterthis problem.First, thematic assignments simplify the complexity of architectural problemsand make it possible to focus on certain aspects, for example theintegration of construction and form.Secondly, by working on scale 1/1, the difficulty of rescaling and problemsof representation are both omitted out of the design process and reinforcethe possibility to focus on form and construction.And thirdly, the order in which steps are applied in practice does not haveto be the order in which they should be taught. There are very good reasonsto teach “backwards”, so there is always something before you is that youalready know.All three strategies were applied in a thematic studio assignment last yearthat started where the design process in practice often ends: the details.The assignment started with the exploration of the formal and constructiveaspects of possible connections between 2 parts of the same or differentmaterials by building and exploring the connections in reality. And it endedwith the exploration of the form and the constructive properties of vertical orhorizontal structures, created by frequently repeating that connection. Duringthe whole design process, the formal aspects of what the students wereconstructing, were visible and at the same time, the constructive qualitieswere tangible with their hands on a full size scale. While neither payingattention to context nor to function, they were able to concentrate on theintegration of form and construction.

Volume Editors
Martha Thorne & Xavier Costa

ISBN
978-0-935502-83-1