IN-PERSON MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY. SECTION B

Abstract

In architectural design, process is widely understood as an iterative continuum embedded in exploration and critical inquiry, enabling ideas and methodologies to evolve beyond the formal termination of a project. This paper argues that process is not only essential to the development of creative work but is the creative product. Through studying student projects produced in a material fabrication course in the American University of Sharjah’s Bachelor of Architecture program that take an empirical approach to learning by doing, the paper examines the critical relationship between evolution and innovation. Rather than emphasizing the highly resolved final product, the course Advanced Topics in Material Fabrication focuses on material experimentation and design in response to material performance to discover, analyze, and develop making methodologies. The course places significance not on what students make, but on what happens in the process of making and the rigor of exploration. Student work is driven by an approach that embraces failure, risk, uncertainty, and intuition as necessary acts of exploration and discovery. An emphasis on experiential learning compels students to operate within an iterative feedback loop, critically analyzing, re-evaluating, and editing their work in sustained dialogue with material. The paper advocates for a pedagogical approach that cultivates creative practice through process-based learning, oscillating between production and reflection. Student work in the course Advanced Topics in Material Fabrication demonstrates enhanced problem-solving, adaptability, and, most importantly, the ability to uncover the diverse possibilities embedded in the act of making leading to multiple, rather than singular outcomes.