Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

Department of Architectural Technology, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Educational technology is divided into three main areas, instrumental, content, and management. The purpose of educational content technology is to create and expand knowledge in order to define educational patterns and methods. The verification of qualitative skills such as architecture can only be done with the help of quantification through the hierarchical definition of design and learning methods. It is necessary to explore patterns and processes in the content technology of structural architecture education, which, while being suitable for teaching students of this field, are compatible with the contemporary content educational technology, which is based on constructivism. These patterns in two general parts, learning processes (and in its subset: education) and structural architecture design processes are separated. These two areas, focusing on the content technology of architecture education, have been considered by many design researchers. Their studies emphasize simulating teaching and architectural design to a research and discovery. This discovery that took place in the form of a cyclical and evolving process, in order to benefit from all the primary generators, included the structure, in improving the architectural concept. A detailed examination of these studies and especially their emphasis on the continuous transformation of the explicit and implicit knowledge of the structure, leads to a detailed understanding of the design process of constructible architecture and the requirements of its learning environment, which is discussed in this article. Therefore, the purpose of this article was to clarify the design process of structural architecture and the requirements of its learning and teaching processes, based on the theory of SCEI, as elements of the content technology of architecture education and for their application in the workshop environments of architecture education.
Methods: In this article, firstly, by knowing the theory of structural architecture, the roles of structure in architecture were determined. Then, with the help of the qualitative content analysis method, in the studies of the architectural design process, the main features of structural architecture processes were extracted. In the qualitative content analysis method, first, the unit of analysis should be among the seven main elements, namely, words, themes, characters, paragraphs, items, concepts and symbols should be specified. In this article, the selected analysis unit were words and categories. For this purpose, key words were extracted from the researchers' design opinions and divided in the form of categories in such a way that the semantic content of the researcher's intended design could be specified with the help of a holistic interpretation and from it, in order to know the process of learning, teaching and designing structural architecture. With the help of this method and using a holistic interpretation, first the characteristics of the constructivist learning environment and the learning process in this environment were extracted, and according to the SCEI theory and its strategies, how the education process transformed the explicit and implicit knowledge of the structure. Finally, the design process of structural architecture was refined by focusing on the main known features.
Findings: With the help of qualitative content analysis method and then focusing on holistic interpretation, this article identified the characteristics of structural architecture design process and the requirements of its learning environment. Based on the theory of knowledge transformation and especially specifying the role of the teacher in this knowledge transformation, it was determined that in the educational environments of the field of architecture, if there is a constructive teaching and learning process, it can be developed in a continuous cycle with the continuous transformation of tacit knowledge and through the strategies of socialization, externalization, combination and internalization, the structure was explicitly approached to ideation in structural architecture, and in this case, the basical, functional and dramatical roles of the structure would be taken into consideration by the designer. Also, with regard to the parts of the learning process of structural architecture extracted from the article, it was found that the design process in this architecture had six specific stages: Analysis, Initial Conjectures, evaluation, review, Combination, Conjecture. These stages could be defined and identified in the form of an evolving cycle, and in total, they form the process cycle of structural architecture design, which was drawn at the end of the article. The results obtained from the above article would be used in order to update the content technology of architecture education in architecture studios.
Conclusion: Improving the content technology of architectural education with the help of exploring the processes of learning, teaching and design of structural architecture, can provide the context for combining structural topics with architectural ideas and lead to the creation of structural architecture that meets the structural requirements and its implicit knowledge along with attention to the beauty and performance of architecture is considered. Architects and especially architecture students, in order to benefit from all the capabilities of the structure, in completing and advancing their concept, need to go through the design process in such a way that it is possible to address the different roles of the structure in the stage of making meaning in the mind and in the form to provide tacit (hidden) knowledge. The roles of the structure in architecture, by separating the implicit and explicit knowledge of the structure and familiarity with the process of their transformation and formation, find the ability to be present in the ideation of architects. Therefore, if in the matter of architectural education and design, during a certain process, attention is paid to the complementary cycle and the transformation of different knowledge into each other; It can be hoped that the final concept will approach the levels of structural architecture. Also, in order to teach such a process, the learning environment must have capabilities that provide the context for the continuous presence of the structure in the learner's ideas. Such environments approach constructivist learning environments and have specific requirements, the most important of which are dynamic and exploratory learning and paying attention to the position of the teacher as a motivation and questioner. A detailed understanding of these requirements in this article and paying attention to the learning and design processes with emphasis on the role of the teacher and the learner, along with the continuous use of implicit and explicit knowledge of structures in architecture, can improve the awareness of the teacher and the learner in order to advance their educational goals and the most important problem of content technology in the current architectural education - the ambiguity in the design and learning processes - could be resolved. In the processes of learning, teaching and design resulting from the article, special emphasis is placed on structured learning environments and the process of discovery and falsification, which is specifically in the form of seven specific stages in the learning process (initial contact, initial reception, supplementary reception, deep reception, control, transmission, awareness, and insight) and continuous transformation of tacit and explicit knowledge of the structure can be seen through four strategies. As a result of focusing on these two processes of learning and teaching, six specific stages in the form of the structural architecture design process (Analysis, Initial Conjectures, evaluation, review, Combination, Conjecture) are defined and verified at the end of the article. The application of the above process in the teaching of introductory courses in architecture improves architectural concepts to structural architecture.

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© 2024 The Author(s).  This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi: 10.22034/aaud.2023.297782.2522
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