Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Abstract

In the 2023-2024 fall semester, the subject of the graduation project at Atılım University, Department of Architecture was determined as the city museum. The aim was to discuss how this city, which was declared the capital of Turkey 100 years ago, should be represented and to give students the opportunity to develop different interpretations of the city they live in. The studio process was structured in three modules. In the first module, students were expected to gather information about the history of the city and develop analyzes and syntheses about the city’s present. The information collected in the first module was expected to shape spatial decisions regarding the museum structure in the second module. The third module focused on constructing the urban narrative of the museum as a place of memory. Due to the earthquake disaster in southeastern Turkey almost at the beginning of the period, this studio process had to be reconsidered during the period. The education process, which started face-to-face, had to be continued remotely for a while after the earthquake. With the return to face-to-face education towards the end of the semester, this flexible design and learning process was completed. Even if unintentionally, the three initially designed modules coincided with different teaching modes during the semester. With the impact of the COVID experience, both instructors and learners were quick to adapt to changing modes. Despite all the misfortunes, the students managed to establish strong relationships with the design problem and their design approaches, and a process with a high success rate was completed. This paper aims to discuss how different education modes affect students’ design approaches and studio environment by following the design process of selected student projects throughout the semester.