Document Type : Original Research Paper-English Issue
Authors
1 Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, , Iran
2 Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
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 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.
Keywords
- Architectural Education
- Online Studio
- Verbal Description (VD)
- Verbal Representation (VR)
- Language Skills
Main Subjects
COPYRIGHTS
© 2025 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/)
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