ONLINE JOURNAL OF ART AND DESIGN, vol.8, no.3, pp.59-74, 2020 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
Architectural
education involves a complex process, where those whose goal is to become a
designer have to learn many different subjects. The art
of designing is supported by many disciplines, which over time shape designers’
perspectives as they mature. The discussion, comprehension and
conceptualization of the subjects constituting the preliminary stages of design
in studios are a significant part of architectural education.
The aim of this
study was to ensure that the architectural students in this study learn how the
designs are transformed into solutions for designing problems by generating
concepts through creativity and by experiencing the whole process, and that
they gain interpretation skills through spatial production process. Students
were asked to generate new descriptions for the designing process by
considering the concepts and readings and to explain how this process was
managed. Special attention was given to how each student created differences in
solving designing problems. This study also examined the effects that studio
projects, which involved a focus on spatial
data and physical and socio-cultural concepts, on spatial belonging/space-free context
in assessing the current environment, and on creating designs through concepts in constructing buildings, had
on architectural students.
The designing
studio in this study included four basic stages, namely, comprehension, interpretation, data
generation and data
transformation, which allowed for the same subject to be evaluated from
different aspects. The architectural students who participated went through a 16-week
education program. The final design projects revealed that the students who had
generated designs through conceptual reasoning were more successful compared to
those who had not, and that studying with the concepts yielded more instructive
results for students and made them more knowledgeable and prepared for their professional
careers.