IN-PERSON Prague Research & Teaching Conference

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the benefits of collaborating with architecture students on research projects of practice that apply and extend learning in the studio and lab. Using a material fabrication course as an impetus, the paper looks at how material investigations conducted in the course inspire further material research into biodegradable soy wax in the design and construction of a spatial installation entitled, ENSIAB, for Dubai Design Week 2024. Coursework in, Advanced Topics in Material Fabrication, focuses on materiality and material processes as the generator of form. In the installation, ENSIAB, material investigations with soy wax are translated and transformed from studies in the lab to the built environment. Coursework is no longer abstract, distant, and inconsequential. Instead, work developed in the classroom finds meaning and purpose beyond fulfilling the requirements of a course, program, or degree. Furthermore, the importance of experimentation and exploration transcend formal education. Working with collaborators in and outside of the institution, rather than independently, reinforces the understanding that design and building is a collective and complex practice influenced by a variety of expertise and factors. The learning outcomes of ENSIAB, for both student and faculty alike, highlight the relevance of design education’s entanglement with design practice. Developing a public installation with students that meaningfully exercises essential skills reveals the potential for design education to be elevated, tested, and informed by the challenges of practice. Most important, when teaching becomes practice and practice becomes teaching, students are directly integrated into the discipline in a significant way; creating work that can be experienced by others outside of the institution enters into dialogue with the public, site, and context in which the work is located, producing a feedback loop that cannot be emulated within the classroom.