Pedagogy 2025

Abstract

In a world increasingly dominated by digital technologies, this paper proposes to reimagine architectural education as one that actively engages the physical site of learning. Existing campus buildings are analyzed as instructional frameworks that foster a pedagogy centered on human experience and environmental responsiveness. Through three case studies situated at different stages of the architecture curriculum at California Polytechnic State University, it examines how institutional infrastructure can serve as a living laboratory for spatial experimentation and design intervention. All three learning activities center around a dialectical relationship with existing campus buildings: the first year “paraSITE” project challenges students to construct temporary structures that lightly interface with the Architecture Building, prompting questions of scale, materiality, and site specificity; an upper-level elective studio tasks students with designing and fabricating benches that hang as add-ons on existing building structures, blending craft, context, and social affordances. Collectively, these case studies demonstrate how tangible, three-dimensional space can support pedagogical experiments that prioritize material engagement, contextual sensitivity, and public interaction. This approach challenges architecture’s conventional emphasis on abstraction and representation, advocating instead for an education grounded in making and spatial empathy. At a time when digital technologies increasingly dominate architectural discourse, this paper argues for the enduring value of physical, human-centered learning environments. It posits that by activating the existing campus as an instructional medium, architectural education can reclaim its relevance and cultivate more socially and environmentally attuned practitioners for the near future.