VIRTUAL MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY
Abstract
As global socio-ecological challenges intensify, design education must evolve toward more adaptive, collaborative, and responsive models. This shift must be reflected in how design is taught and learned, particularly within studio-based environments. In this context, this study engages with these questions through play, exploring its potential within studio-based design education. The conducted research investigated play as an innovative pedagogical framework within a landscape design studio. While contemporary studio education provides a strong foundation for spatial thinking and site-based problem-solving, it often relies on fixed briefs and linear processes, limiting students’ ability to engage with uncertainty, negotiation, conflicts of interest, and evolving design conditions. In response, the proposed approach enables students to engage in design as an iterative and collective process, where decisions emerge through interaction. Methodologically, the study adopts a design exploration approach, in which a game is developed and implemented as part of the studio process. The proposed game operates as a design canvas in which spatial configurations are developed through play. Participants generate design proposals by making decisions during gameplay. Through role-play, participants engage with diverse stakeholder perspectives, negotiate both physical and non-physical layers of the urban environment. By adapting their decisions, participants test alternative scenarios and experience design as an evolving process. This approach supports peer learning and enables participants to engage with the core learning objectives of studio education. It reframes the top-down planning to a bottom-up approach based on negotiation and co-design to optimize the process and the related outcomes.
Ekin Seker is a Landscape architect and PhD candidate at Istanbul Technical University, working at the intersection of urban design, research, and participatory design methodologies. She is actively engaged in teaching and research, contributing to design studios and international workshops focused on collaborative processes and design thinking. Her doctoral research explores how participatory and interactive approaches, including game-based learning and serious game design, can support more inclusive and innovative urban design solutions.
Prof. Dr. Fatma Aycim Turer Baskaya holds her undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture and completed her MSc and PhD in Landscape Planning at Istanbul Technical University. She worked as a researcher at the University of Kassel in 2009. Her research focuses on problematic landscapes, with an emphasis on GIS-based landscape studies, coastal landscape planning and design, climate-responsive and disaster-sensitive landscapes. She received several academic awards, including the ITU Best PhD Thesis Award in 2018, and is currently coordinating research projects on disaster-resilient landscape planning.
Dr. Marco Delli Paoli is an Architect and Postdoctoral Researcher at Sapienza University of Rome, holding a PhD in Environmental Technology Design. His research focuses on Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) and climate-adaptive design, addressing the energy transition through integrated approaches. He has advanced expertise in environmental design, Building Information Modelling (BIM), building performance simulation, and computational design. He is a member of the Italian Society of Architectural Technology (SITdA) and has contributed to several Horizon Europe and COST Action projects, as well as international research initiatives.
Prof. Dr. Maria Beatrice Andreucci, PhD (Environmental Design), MBA, MSc (Economics), and MSc (Architecture), is a social scientist and designer working at the intersection of architecture and urban design. Her research explores the application of social-ecological theories to the built environment, focusing on climate resilience, ecosystem services, and nature-based solutions. She has contributed to concepts such as circular building and landscape economy, fostering transdisciplinary connections between academia and practice. Her current work addresses human-centered energy transition, positive energy districts, and carbon-neutral cities. She teaches at Sapienza University of Rome and is active in international research.
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Thursday 25th June, 2026