Inter Actions Responding to Uncertainty Housing Studio Pedagogy

Global Dwelling: Interwinning Research, Community Participation and Pedagogy, 2017

The gap between the reality of a changing world and the established teaching and learning models is addressed in “The Challenge of Change in Living Environments: Implications and Opportunities for Architectural Education”. The chapter argues that changes in architectural education, in particular in housing design studios, are necessary to face the ongoing transformations in living environments in cities around the world which are driven by multiple forces: Globalization, increased mobility, massive movements of labour forces, immigration flows, technological developments, economic fluctuations and terrorism. Some of their consequences are lack of affordable housing, homelessness and overcrowding, and social integration problems. However, in spite of these ubiquitous and tangible transformations, architectural education—in particular design studio pedagogy—seems to be “an isolated island in the middle of a complex reality”. To overcome this insularity, it would be necessary to adopt “multidisciplinary approaches in studio pedagogy, going beyond disciplinary and academic boundaries, and cancelling out the tensions between global dynamics, cultural diversity and local realities”. In the same way as living environments change, so does the architectural profession. Furthermore, there is a lack of correspondence between what architects are expected to do in a changing and global society and what they learn at schools: “Architectural educators continue designing and teaching the studio on the basis of what an architect currently is or was”, rather than what they will do as professionals. Solving the incongruity between the fast-moving world and conventional academic education is an opportunity to reflect about the profession and contribute to its renewal. To undertake such transformation in architectural education and practice, the housing design studio needs to be reconstituted. It is necessary to overcome disciplinary and academic boundaries and deal with global forces and local socio-spatial realities in design studio work. In a re-formed housing design studio questions posed by society would not be taken as fixed and well-defined problems but as opportunities “to investigate how social and life patterns evolve” through research-based design. Therefore, such a design studio would not be an island detached from the complexity of the world but interwoven within it, and design would be seen not as a formal solution to a well-defined problem but as an instrument to investigate the nature of the problems in their own real context. Thus, pedagogical models based on “project-based learning”, “research as design”, “designerly research”, and “action research” would suit to the goals of this reformulated design studio.

Conference Proceedings: The Challenge of Change: Addressing Global Forces vs. Local Realities in Architectural Education, 2016

Multiple, abrupt and often unexpected changes that cities face today due to globalization, massive internal flows of labor and migration, climate change, economic fluctuations and terrorism pose challenges of increasing complexity. On one hand, important global forces underpin the aforementioned changes, while on the other hand there seem to be alternative effects in cities around the world whose understanding entails taking into account local socio-spatial realities. Tensions between global forces and local identities entail a respective transformation of the built environment where the everyday life of the diverse and different groups living in cities unfolds. Contemporary urban contexts lead to an enormous increase in the complexity of the challenges architects have to deal with and have an evident impact on design practice and the design process itself; the latter has gradually become a complex process involving an increasing number of agents and types of knowledge. The future actors of the built environment, therefore, need to be trained to address effectively continuous changes and transformations, instability and the increased tensions between global dimensions and local contexts. Design studio pedagogy, still considered as the backbone of architectural education, needs to be informed and encountered in its broadest sense. This paper seeks to address these issues, in the educational context of the design studio offering a diversity of options on possible futures of architectural education. How well do we prepare students in an age of change and uncertainty? The tensions between global dynamics, cultural diversity and local realities are explored highlighting potential 'opportunities' to redefine the core of education for our future graduates by rethinking and redesigning the teaching and learning relationship.

2007

Architecture_MPS, 2020

This article argues that the typical architectural studio is both outmoded and irresponsible. It is outmoded because it typically is organized around a nineteenth-century model of design virtuosity, and it is irresponsible because it ignores pressing and current spatial justice problems. It also takes to task the aura of the academic setting in which the formally motivated studio reigns supreme. In lieu of this model of architectural education, the article argues for an education that empowers graduates to tackle the major problems that society currently faces: housing, climate, income inequality/unemployment and health. To do this, it acknowledges but suggests overthrowing the many institutional hurdles keeping architectural education attached to the status quo.

Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, Volume 1, Issue 3, PP. 194-206, 2007

Design Studio Pedagogy: Horizons for the Future, Ashraf M. Salama and Nicholas Wilkinson (Editors), Review by Halina Dunin Woyseth, 2007 ___________________ The book in question is an extensive work, which assembles essays by twenty-six authors. The structuring concept of the book builds upon the following thematic parts: 1. Theoretical Perspectives; 2. Critical Thinking and Decision Making in Studio Pedagogy; 3. Addressing Cognitive Style in Studio Pedagogy; 4. Community, Place and the Studio; 5. Digital Technologies and the Studio. Each part has its own introduction written by the editors. The subject of the book is a field of expertise for the editors. Ashraf Salama has published numerous works on the matter since his influential book “New Trends in Architectural Education: Designing the Design Studio” (1995). Nicholas Wilkinson has been a studio educator for over 20 years and has written extensively on education and housing in addition to his experience and sustained effort as chief editor of Open House International. Their introduction to the book is followed by two invited essays by N. John Habraken and Henry Sanoff, both internationally renowned education practitioners and scholars. The message of the book appears to be a unanimous criticism of the dominating design studio practices. The book offers a broad picture of the current transformation of these practices. ______________________________ See more by downloading the full article Architectural Education, Design Pedagogy, Community Design, Social Architecture, Place Making

Interdisciplinary education is becoming a hallmark strategy for preparing and providing students with the skills necessary for addressing the complexity of our contemporary built environments. In this paper, we examine how the studio model of education presents opportunities for increasing interdisciplinarity in the classroom. Specifically, we develop a pedagogical framework for examining three educational themes: establishing rigorous forms of experimentation, developing collective understanding, and generating interdisciplinary collaboration. We identify that developing collective understanding is the most challenging of the three themes to frame, implement, and achieve in the classroom, suggesting interdisciplinary studio education should focus on sharing disciplinary vocabularies and improving students' communicative techniques.

Studies in Social Justice

Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism, 2021

Routledge Revivals Edition Salama, A. M. (2021). Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism. Routledge-Taylor and Francis Group, London. ISBN: 978-3937954-042 (print) - 9781003140047 (eBook) Earlier Edition Salama, A. M. (2009). Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism. Umbau-Verlag, Solingen, Germany ISBN # 978-3937954-042. Research developed over the past two decades indicates that many problems that exist in the built environment have their roots in the current educational system of architecture and urbanism. Since architectural and urban education is the backbone for the practice of producing meaningful environments and since architectural and urban design is the main concern of educators, it is essential to encounter their pedagogical aspects while dealing with the subject as a rich field of research whose con­ tents, methods, techniques, and tools should be examined and questioned. __________ This book introduces a new form of pedagogy in architecture and urbanism; trans- formative pedagogy — a term that refers to interactional processes and dialogues be­ tween educators and students that invigorate the collaborative creation and distribution of power. As a concept, it is based on the fact that the interaction between educators and students reflects and fosters the broader societal pattern. Transformative pedagogy in architecture and urbanism is about balancing the creative act required for successful design and the social and environmental responsibilities that should be embedded in this act. While transformative pedagogy as a concept is not confined to a static definition, it builds on the perspectives of critical pedagogy and its under­ lying hidden curriculum concept. __________ Critical pedagogy aims at reconfiguring the traditional student/teacher relation­ ship, where the teacher is the active agent — the knowledge provider — and the students are the passive recipients of the teacher’s knowledge. Grounded on the experiences of both students and teachers new knowledge is produced through the dialogical process of learning. The hidden curriculum concept is thus concerned with questions that pertain to the ideology of knowledge and the social practices that structure the experiences of educators and students. Adopting transformative pedagogy enhances the capability of educators in architecture and urbanism to interpret the relationship between knowledge and power. In this respect, one should recognize that educational settings — whether studios or classrooms — are not neutral sites; they are integral to social, cultural, and political relations that characterize real life conditions. Transformative pedagogy is about understanding how knowledge is produced, what the components of such knowledge are, and what are the learning processes and social practices that can be used to transmit it. __________ The broad goal of this book is to establish methods and approaches for ameliorating the current design studio pedagogy. The overall argument is based on the importance of internalizing relevant social and ethical approaches to the design studio that elucidate the role of the architect-planner or urbanist in society and that form a basis for future professional judgment. The argument conceives the present value system imbibed in the design studio, based on self-expression and the exclusion of many other important factors, as inappropriate to the present professional milieu, which, in turn, results in the reduction of the influence of the architect-planner in shaping the built environment and of the effectiveness of the profession in society. __________ As a new round of pedagogical dialogue on architecture and urbanism it resets the stage for debating future visions of transformative pedagogy and its impact on design education. This is a forward looking effort that comes to amalgamate concerns, concepts, and practices that Ashraf M. Salama has explored and introduced over a period of two decades. It is about balancing the creative act required for creating responsive environments and the social and environmental responsibilities that should be embedded in this act. It is also about understanding how knowledge is produced, what the components of such knowledge are, and what are the learning processes and social practices that can be used to transmit it. Structured in five chapters the book presents a wide range of innovative and practical methodologies for teaching architectural and urban design. It traces the roots of architectural education and offers several contrasting ideas and strategies of design teaching practices. The book includes five chapters: 1) A New Theory for Transformative Pedagogy in Architecture and Urbanism 2) The Architect, the Profession, and Society 3) The Conventional Approach to Studio Teaching Practice 4) Against the Conventional Studio Pedagogy 5) Empowering Transformative Pedagogy ..

2015

Salama, A. M. (2015). Spatial Design Education: New Directions for Pedagogy in Architecture and Beyond, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Surrey/London, United Kingdom. ISBN # 978-1-4724-2287-3 (Routledge New Edition). Design education in architecture and allied disciplines is the cornerstone of design professions that contribute to shaping the built environment of the future. In this book, design education is dealt with as a paradigm whose evolutionary processes, underpinning theories, contents, methods, tools, are questioned and critically examined. It features a comprehensive discussion on design education with a focus on the design studio as the backbone of that education and the main forum for creative exploration and interaction, and for knowledge acquisition, assimilation, and reproduction. Through international and regional surveys, the striking qualities of design pedagogy, contemporary professional challenges and the associated sociocultural and environmental needs are identified. Building on twenty-five years of research and explorations into design pedagogy in architecture and urban design, this book authoritatively offers a critical analysis of a continuously evolving profession, its associated societal processes and the way in which design education reacts to their demands. Matters that pertain to traditional pedagogy, its characteristics and the reactions developed against it in the form of pioneering alternative studio teaching practices. Advances in design approaches and methods are debated including critical inquiry, empirical making, process-based learning, and Community Design, Design-Build, and Live Project Studios. Innovative teaching practices in lecture-based and introductory design courses are identified and characterized including inquiry-based, active and experiential learning. These investigations are all interwoven to elucidate a comprehensive understanding of contemporary design education in architecture and allied disciplines. A wide spectrum of teaching approaches and methods is utilized to reveal a theory of a ‘trans-critical’ pedagogy that is conceptualized to shape a futuristic thinking about design teaching. Lessons learned from techniques and mechanisms for accommodation, adaptation, and implementation of a ‘trans-critical’ pedagogy in education are conceived to invigorate a new student-centered, evidence-based design culture sheltered in a wide variety of learning settings in architecture and beyond. ____________________ Review by Halina Dunin-Woyseth, Oslo School of Architecture, Norway This is indeed an inspiring and thought provoking contribution to the field of design pedagogy in its fullest sense. Calling for new forms of pedagogy, the argument for civic engagement, critical inquiry, and reflective design practices is elucidated to reflect emerging understandings of design education. With substantial international experience, the author offers an authoritative account of spatial design pedagogy with a focus on architectural and urban design education, covering a diverse range of topics in a wide variety of contexts. Tracing evolutionary theories and approaches of education from the second half of the 20th century to the present is a commendable aspect of this work. This is a must-have book for both design students and built environment professionals, but most importantly, it is essential reading for every design educator worldwide. _____ Review by Tammy Gaber, Laurentian University School of Architecture, Canada Spatial Design Education: New Directions for Pedagogy in Architecture and Beyond is a proactive book that transparently presents promising approaches to tap into latent potentials and exciting opportunities in teaching architecture. Salama's candid review and analysis importantly fills a gap in literature on architecture pedagogy. The book is comprehensive, critical and experimental and very much analogous to the way we all want to teach architecture. _____ Review by Michael J. Crosbie, University of Hartford, USA No other profession has undergone as dramatic a transformation in the past decade as architecture. In this well-researched, intelligent, and provocative examination of the history, current state, and future prospects of architectural pedagogy on a global scale, Ashraf Salama challenges us to both broaden and deepen the debate about how professional education might, indeed must, change. _____ Review by Jeff Hou, University of Washington, USA With the voice of an experienced educator on the frontline of architectural education, Ashraf Salama offers an audacious yet thoroughly researched examination of design pedagogies and ethics in a changing world. More than just a condemnation of outmoded studio culture, this book presents insightful accounts of both historic development as well as past and emerging innovations in design education. An extraordinary sourcebook for design educators and students. _____ Review by Karen Keddy, Ball State University, USA Building on a rigorous and critical examination of a wide spectrum of architectural design pedagogies over time, Ashraf Salama constructs a convincing argument for the need for a design pedagogy that is more responsive to today's social and environmental demands. Salama's well-articulated description of a multi-layered trans-critical pedagogy that promotes a democratic and inclusive theory of education couldn't be more timely. This book is ground breaking in its attempt to identify pedagogical approaches to the challenges faced in the profession by the changing role of the architect and is invaluable for researchers, practitioners, graduate students and educators in architecture. _____ Review by Harriet Harriss, Oxford Brookes University, UK Due to EU directives, UK architectural education is facing imminent change - specifically, to become shorter, more affordable, and more practice integrated - so that it matches the programs offered by its EU university counterparts/competitors. What Professor Salama's book offers is a methods statement - an invaluable resource book for educators needing to rethink their curricula to meet this demand for change. It provides passionate educators, participation-inclined practitioners and engaged students with practical inspiration from a range of excellent case studies that demonstrate experimental, spatially and socially innovative pedagogies. _____ Review by Jeffrey Haase, The Ohio State University, USA As a professor who constantly looks to unlock the doors of innovative thought and practice in the studio-based classroom, this book, Spatial Design Education by Ashraf Salama, is the master key. Salama creates the convincing argument for pedagogical change and then systematically evaluates examples of current evolving paradigms that are making that change happen. If you want to be part of that change then this book should be your guide.

Visual Research Methods in Architecture, 2021

From the ‘Introduction’ to the volume by the editors: “What is or should architecture and architectural research concern itself with in a globalized, contested twenty-first century? This question drives Tariq Toffa’s architectural pedagogical practice at the University of Johannesburg. Chapter 3, entitled ‘How to draw a line when the world is moving: Architectural education in times of urgent imagination’ by Toffa, argues that architecture’s contemporary purpose is to produce agency rather than products. Arguing that globalization neglects the social, Toffa contends that an ethical imagination in drawing is needed to generate new visions and voices. Drawing from Arif Dirlik’s argument about the inseparability of the aesthetic and the social, Toffa exposes the power relations inherent in Euro-American-centric ‘visibility’ as having a significant influence on architectural design pedagogy and spatial designers. Through speculative, mixed-media drawing work, promoting a dialectic method and working explicitly with difference, Toffa’s studios explore research inquiries and conditions informed by methodological tactics of ‘voicing’, ‘multi-modality’, ‘siting (surfacing)’, ‘spaces of publics’, ‘territory’, ‘perspective’ and ‘reflexivity’. Noting the recent shifts in sociology and art history, where ‘sociological reflexivity’ is used as a research tool (d’Oliveira-Martins 2014: 193), the aim of Toffa’s and his students’ pedagogic work is to refocus an ethical imaginary that transcends and re-writes disciplinary and racial conventions through site-specific actions. Drawing can make social power relations visually tangible and Toffa’s essay makes an original contribution by presenting new drawing practices for research that decolonizes and emancipates space and architectural education.” (Troiani & Ewing 2021, Introduction: Visual research methods and ‘critical visuality’, in Troiani, I. and Ewing, S. (Eds.), Visual Methodologies in Architectural Research. Intellect publishers, 2021.)