e-learning
H. Pourmehdi Ghaemmaghami; A. Khaki Ghasr
Abstract
Background and Objectives: All academic fields, including architecture, were taught online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Architectural design studios were the most challenging courses offered online among all the architectural courses. The benefits and disadvantages of teaching in online design studios ...
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Background and Objectives: All academic fields, including architecture, were taught online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Architectural design studios were the most challenging courses offered online among all the architectural courses. The benefits and disadvantages of teaching in online design studios have been studied through research on practitioner feedback. The current study focuses on the advantages of online studios and emphasizes the importance of verbal representation in the architectural design process. As verbal representation is utilized in the design process, with verbal description being one of its tools, the question arises: Is it feasible to enhance the verbal representation skills of architecture students, despite the limitations in content transmission and the challenges encountered during online studio delivery?Materials and Methods: The research methodology is qualitative. It is based on a systematic literature review and case study in which authors have used an autoethnography approach, sharing their experiences as online instructors during the COVID-19 crisis. The case study was carried out via thematic analysis supported by coding employing tactics including observations, memos, self-evaluation of students, and questionnaires. The research took place at Shahid Beheshti University's Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning for five academic semesters (2019-2022). The statistical population included 147 students (111 undergrads and 36 graduates). Findings: The results demonstrate that, due to the constraints of material sharing compared to face-to-face studios, architectural design online studios rely primarily on listening senses and linguistic skills. The results show an improvement in students' verbal representation (both oral and written), which varies depending on the studios. In online studios, 86% of students reported that their writing ability had improved, and 73% reported that their oral representation had improved. It is worth noting that students in online studios rate verbal representation in written format as the second most improved skill out of six. As a result, the level of usage and acceptability of written and oral representation in the creative process in online studios has not been consistent, and it may alter for various reasons. Some key points that make it successful include the instructor's preference for employing verbal description and representation in the studio, the student's potential in verbal description, the theme of the design studio, and where we are in the design process.Conclusions: Online architectural design studios provide students with the chance to improve their verbal representation skills. Additionally, one of the bases of delivering online studios is the ability to express ideas clearly via language, which also plays a compensating role during the design process in maintaining the studios' quality. Use of this feature in hybrid, online, or face-to-face studios could be part of future plans. The valuable tasks to be carried out should be defined and experienced in this context so that they can be implemented at the beginning, middle, or end of the design process. The practice of expressing the scenario, defining the design problem, writing the design statement, preparing sessions for reading descriptions from renowned authors' texts, as well as the sessions for critiquing the works of students and architects in the online studios in tutorial and judgment sessions, can be listed among them.
Architecture
H. Pour mehdi Ghayem Maghami
Abstract
Background and Objectives:The "sense of belonging" in architecture is formed in the interaction between man and the environment in environmental psychology and environmental design. By generalizing the concept of belonging based on Dehkhoda’s dictionary, one of the aspects of the sense of belonging ...
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Background and Objectives:The "sense of belonging" in architecture is formed in the interaction between man and the environment in environmental psychology and environmental design. By generalizing the concept of belonging based on Dehkhoda’s dictionary, one of the aspects of the sense of belonging means knowing oneself belonging to the place and the society with which human identity is defined. In children, the sense of belonging to the family and the home as innate institutions of the child's emotional and spatial dependence are at the peak of the concept of attachment. After the children attend school, the family and teachers, as well as the place and body of school for the second social and physical institution, must continue and complement the sense of social and spatial belonging. The concept of a sense of belonging is very important for the second place where students spend a lot of time. The current study expresses the concept of primary school students’ connectedness and tries to define and analyse school environment affordances to increase the connectedness. Methods: The research method is qualitative based on library and case studies. The case studies have been chosen from two categories: initial cases and the ones from abroad so that a comparative comparison would be done. Findings: As the comparative comparison revealed the intersection of the two kinds of case studies focus is on open space or yard. The different between them is that in abroad cases space affordances refer to social interaction, hominess and controlled career while in Iranian cases they refer to religious social interactions and athletic acts. Conclusion: As the results show, the affordances of Iranian schools should be better in increasing connectedness by re-designing these elements: schools entrance, schools wall which link to community, better yards, dynamic corridors, multipurpose classrooms, etc. Reviewing these elements should be followed both in theory and practice. Thus, more student participation is considered as an important social factor and a kind of guarantee to increase their sense of belonging to the school, and schools should provide their physical capabilities for more socialization of students and teachers as members of the school family. Also, due to the importance of the role of open spaces in schools, it is necessary to re-design school yards to meet safe and comfortable facilities and revive students' safe mobility in them.
