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Conference paper2016Peer reviewed

Education through Experimentation: Elucidating the Intersection Between RIEAch and Design Thinking

Dahl, Per-Johan; Cusmá, Donatella; Dahl, Caroline

Abstract

This paper uses the three spatial design workshops D-Thinking Urban Strategy; Re-Ts >> Space(s) Innovation, and ZHUuGROUND 14 as the intellectual framework to evaluate experimentation as a pedagogical model in current interdisciplinary design education. The three workshops were conducted by the independent teaching and research organization, the Research Institute for Experimental Architecture (RIEAch), between 20 I 0 and 2014. Two were conducted in affiliation with Swedish academic institutions, and one with an academic institution in Hong Kong. Conclusions from the three workshops combine to spearhead a critical analysis of experimentation as an inclusive part in the current training of spatial design across disciplines. RIEAch, which was co~ founded by Lebbeus Woods in 1988, is a global network of architects, academics, and artists dedicated to advance experimentation in the fields of architecture and urbanism. With its headquarters in Bern, Switzerland, the educational section of the organization operates primarily as a plug~ in component to accredited curricula. The teaching methodology exercised by RIEAch adheres to Woods's discourse on experimental architecture, which this article reads as a radical approach to the concepts of, and the synergies between, autonomy, tectonics, and process. While Woods's teaching methodology primarily addresses the discipline of architecture, RIEAch's objective is to broaden the target group and thus also address the disciplines related to urbanism, such as landscape architecture and urban design. This expanded field of disciplinary stipulation requires pedagogical adjustment. Taking Hasse Plattner's design thinking as the lens through which to systematize Woods's teaching method, RIEAch has developed a teaching methodology that consolidates a series of learning objectives for interdisciplinary design education, such as large scale modelling, open-ended design processes, and social interaction through design. This paper has been developed accordingly, hence the objective to intersect historical and theoretical provisions with recent student works to evaluate the aptitudes of experimentation as a pedagogical model in current interdisciplinary design education. The paper celebrates Woods's approach to teaching through a process where each author's contribution is clearly legible within a collaborative whole. The paper traces and synthesizes Woods's learning method to extrapolate RIEAch's teaching methodology. It traces the application of Plattner's design thinking to identify the pedagogical adjustment and consolidate methods for interdisciplinary design teaching. It synthesizes the outcomes of the three workshops to stipulate strategies for experimentation as a pedagogical model, and to discuss their nature of inclusiveness with the disciplines of architecture and urbanism.

Keywords

RIEAch; Lebbeus Woods; design thinking; workshop; experiment; pedagogy; teaching methodology

Published in


ISBN: 978-605·5625·06-1
Publisher: Ozyegin University Publications

Conference

2016 Design Communication European Conference