VIRTUAL: Applying Education

Abstract

Design studio acts as the most important course in architectural education. In late architectural design studios, particular attention should be paid to the necessity that the students acquire professional practice experience and be introduced and exposed to reality as much as possible. The academic staff of the design studio make efforts to prepare a project guideline for each design studio each semester. Consequently, students work hard through the whole semester to fulfill the project requirements, and instructors make great efforts in guiding and helping them. Most of the design studio projects’ outlines are hypothetical and do not necessarily reflect real challenges and considerations in the professional practice. The present study aims at developing a process-based approach to teaching advanced design courses while referring to professional practice in an attempt to respond to the aforementioned challenges. This method replaces the hypothetical project outline of the design studio by an international competition that suits the main focus of the specific design studio, learning outcomes and timeline. In the belief that Design in general is a competition, this method introduces students to the nature of international prestigious competitions and a systematic design process that they can pursue in their future professional practice endeavors. This method also motivates the students and widens the students perspective and exposes them to the idea of competing with international students instead of the idea of competing with one another. In this paper, courses outlines of Architectural Design 5 & 6 (The Future University in Egypt) are replaced by the outline of COTE and Fentress Global Challenge competitions. The proposed model is divided into two phases. The first phase involves the staff members of the design studio and is divided into three steps. The second phase involves both staff members and the students and is divided into four steps.