Pedagogy 2025
Abstract
In architecture education, construction courses often face a crisis of engagement. While students are drawn to the creative freedom of design studios, construction knowledge is frequently seen as rigid, technical, and detached from imagination. In many schools in Turkey, this divide is seen in curricula and reinforces the idea that construction is learned later in practice, rather than as integral to design thinking. Yet construction knowledge can be inventive and exploratory—a potential mission of academia. For tectonic integration in architectural education, construction courses must move beyond transmitting technical facts and toward modes of learning that actively support design culture and integration. This paper asks how construction pedagogy can be playful and enabling. We introduce kurmaca—meaning fiction and construction—as a framework for rethinking construction teaching. Methodologically, this study is conceptual: it builds on a literature review to propose a pedagogical framework across content, methods, and tools. Kurmaca redefines construction learning as playful yet rigorous. It emphasizes that learning unfolds within the activity itself, beyond teacher or student control, drawing on Gadamer’s concept of play. Technical rigor remains, but in accessible form that anchors exploration without overwhelming. Instead of starting with abstract theory and ending with application, it begins with instinctive exploration and ends with theoretical connections, fostering curiosity before rules. This approach aligns with Kolb’s experiential learning cycle of experience, reflection, and experimentation. The central tools are 3D-printed kits to be assembled, disassembled, and split to reveal relationships between volumes and material systems, bridging orthographic drawings with 3D thinking. The paper contributes a theoretical framework of kurmaca as an emergent pedagogy, advances debates on construction education, and offers a foundation for future action research.
Bahar Aktuna is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Yeditepe University, Istanbul, where she teaches design studios, construction, and the elective Tectonic Matters. She holds a PhD focused on theories of architectural ruin. Following her doctorate, her research has centered on educational design/build and tectonics, with a focus on how material systems and processes shape design thinking. She is the editor of Design Build Record, a book that documents and reflects on design/build education.
Esra Karahan is a part-time Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture, Yeditepe University. She teaches courses on building and structural design, as well as electives on Traditional Wooden Structures in Anatolia and Contemporary Wooden Structures. She received her PhD with the dissertation titled “Model Proposal for the Design and Construction Methods of Housing Production in Artvin Province Camili Basin”. Her academic research focuses on traditional and contemporary timber structures and architectural pedagogy. She is also the co-founder of Karahan Architecture, where she has been involved in various professional projects.
Bükre Pazar holds a degree in Architecture from Maltepe University and is currently pursuing a Master of Architecture (MArch) at Yeditepe University while serving as a graduate assistant. His research interests focus on design processes, urban design, and architectural computing.
Sude Acarbay holds a degree in Architecture from Yeditepe University and is currently pursuing a Master of Architecture (MArch) at Yeditepe University while serving as a graduate assistant. Her research interests focus on the integration of 3D printing technologies into architecture and urban development, exploring their potential in shaping future cities.
8:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Friday 21st November, 2025