Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Abstract

This paper examines the pedagogical challenges instructors and students face when incorporating the structural system into mid-level studio projects and proposes approaches to integrate structural design as a generative force in the design process. For students in their second or third year, introducing considerations about the structural system in their design often happens as an afterthought, and rarely is structure understood as part of the generative process. In this scenario, the harmonic relationship between the support system and the formal and spatial sequence is hindered, promoting a compartmentalized design sequence in the process. This approach may affect the architectural studio learning experience and can later translate to a practice model in which schematic design ideas are transferred to a different practitioner to develop the structural system. Through a narrative that uses student projects as evidence, the paper examines three distinct approaches to the pedagogy of structures and architecture in the context of a third-year architectural design studio. The first approach understands the structural system as the generator of the architectural sequence. The second approach reflects on the overarching role of geometry as an ordering principle that simultaneously impacts formal/spatial sequence and supporting systems. The third approach builds on the theories of Kenneth Frampton about the dialogue between the stereotomic mass and the tectonic frame to analyze the integration of structures and landscape. Through these approaches, the studio tried to balance the rational demands of the structural system and experiential narratives to build more comprehensive architectural projects.