Transformative Teaching

Abstract

The teaching of knowledge to students is very often done through physical objects. In architectural education, the model (‘maquette’) is a well-tried example of such a method: the scale model as a knowledge object. Students learn by looking at models but also by making models themselves with specific techniques, that architecture is a continuous learning process of incorporating and making and a confrontation with reality. A second important method of knowledge transfer is the reading in a group of inspirational texts. Interpreting literature and translating conceptual ideas into one’s own design is a pillar in the learning process within architectural education. We combined both in a one semester-long seminar (TACTICS): models were used as moulds for ideas that occurred after discussion in group and interpretation of the ‘Six memos for a new millennium’ by Italo Calvino. The technical aspect of pouring, all the students used a pouring technique with different materials to make the models, was the physical retriction of the exercise. A landscape of tables 60X120 cm – Trying out casting systems, combining drawings and presenting them as a coherent story resulted in a final presentation. Each student made a presentation with the physical models, the test results, the drawings and explained to the group his/her thinking process. Hence, Calvino’s thoughts were confronted and presented on a table of 60 by 120 centimeters all next to each other through the lens of the students. After a pandemic period this was one of the first live presentations by the students. The model could be touched and manipulated on the spot. The dialogue with Calvino not only installed a narrative through a piece of literature but also enhanced a profound interaction between the students within the conditions of a magic-realistic possibility . We will elaborate in the paper on the reading process, the materiality and connection with reality and the mechanisms of the transformative process.