Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Abstract

What would a studio assessment model look like that situated individual student learning, development, and success in a broader context? How would the studio experience differ if its assessment was based on interconnected learning and broader community impact? Can a professional staffing framework serve as a model for studio team formation and assessment? The architectural studio problem and urban environments we work in are increasingly complex. Pedagogy that mimics the professional environment with team-based projects offers students a better understanding of the complexity of professional project roles. As an alternative to traditional approaches that often result in undirected self-selection, skill gaps, or interpersonal clashes, professional staffing models like the Working Genius (Lencioni) offer a practical approach to team composition and evaluation that can be adapted to a design studio setting. Using a coordinated undergraduate complex studio, the proposal outlines the studio setup, learning objectives, and cross-disciplinary approaches included to aid students in designing a live-work project that supports local marginalized communities with untapped cultural and economic potential. Our goal is to reframe studio education as a shared approach to learning. It integrates assessment models that place the broader community as integral to student success and helps students see the wider-reaching impact of their learning. Assignments build on applied arts education approaches that utilize opportunities for teamwork, engagement, and making across scales as a form of empathy training. Through this model, the course intends to 1) expand the teaching community to include community-based cultural meditators and their wealth of knowledge, 2) engage cross-disciplinary students and faculty across campus, 3) identify entry points for community engagement, and 4) explore better ways to handle interpersonal team politics, in the studio and in everyday interactions.