Learning through non-determined content in architectural design teaching

Abstract

Teaching design constitutes the core of architectural education and is cut across by multiple viewpoints, nuances, demands, experiments and influences. Therefore, it is quite difficult to determine its content since it is covered at different levels that are not always easy to explain precisely. The approach of this paper is mainly theoretical, although it is also the result of educational experiments. It examines that content which because of its versatile and non-determined nature constitutes a laboratory for experiments that helps to enrich architectural learning and practice. This content is part of the act of designing and has several pedagogical aims such as avoiding mental block when starting, awakening learner interest in design, inserting critique without forcing it by questioning previous knowledge, promoting creativity, inviting students to experiment with different processes, activating their imagination and in general introducing them to “the act of doing.”