Built Environment Education Annual Conference
BEECON 2006, London 12.09.06
• How would you
assist students to
integrate specialist
knowledge into their
design work and
provide evidence of
this within their
portfolio?
Dr. Samer Bagaeen
Department of Architecture
University of Strathclyde
Christopher Alexander
an urban analogy thinking about city structure
in “A city is not a tree”, Alexander argues
both ‘tree’ and ‘semi-lattice’ are ways of
thinking about how a large collection of
many small systems goes to make up a
large and complex system
tree and semi-lattice
the semi-lattice promotes integration
but to achieve integration,
we need patience!
in A pattern language, Alexander writes
that patterns “can never be designed or
built in one fell swoop but patient
piecemeal growth designed in such a way
that every individual act is always helping
to create or generate these larger global
patterns”
so, where do we start?
what we want to achieve is good discipline
and management from below; a bottom-up
hierarchy has the structure needed for
effectiveness and is easy to construct
it was after all Alexander who suggested
that large-scale forms could be
synthesised after analysing large-scale
problems into small problems so that they
could be picked off one at a time
HOWEVER, …
there will be difficulties
• the tree is accessible mentally and easy to
deal with; the semi-lattice is harder to deal
with; the aspects of overlap, ambiguity,
and multiplicity of the semi-lattice are
thicker, tougher, more subtle and more
complex
• difficult to achieve the complexity of the
semi-lattice in a single mental act
one complex situation
the study of architecture
small systems forming a large complex system
…where the
studio is the
centre of the
student’s
educational
life
lets take for example one system /
challenge in the study of architecture…
for ‘Building Technology and Environment’:
• how is specialist knowledge integrated
into the studio?
there are two aspects to this
• how to synthesise and design with
this specialist knowledge?
• how to prove you have done it?
• the former is about the process
• the latter probably concerns how this
knowledge is mapped clearly to
ARB/RIBA criteria; the manifestation
and evidence
a continuum of explicitness
• if a student does a technology module and is assessed
on it, there is clear evidence of that specialist knowledge
HOWEVER…
• if the desire is for integration, the very act of separating it
into a discrete module can be problematic and
encourages a tick-box mentality
ULTIMATELY…
• architecture is about the whole, even if one must prove
things in the portfolio individually
issues to consider when moving forward
• think about both the ways in which
courses may be structured (modules,
learning outcomes, etc.) and how they
are taught
• that is: the balance between, on the one
hand, the modularisation and therefore
the ‘explicitness of evidence’, and on
the other seamless integration made
by encouraging ways of integrative
thinking
it’s really about getting the balance right…
…and promoting a way of thinking
successful integration
Student Personal Development Planning
Year 1 Pilot, Department of Architecture
Strathclyde University
because the majority of classes in the
study of architecture are compulsory in
alignment with ARB professional
accreditation regulations, any additional
tasks that the students needed to
undertake regarding SPDP were minimal
therefore, every effort was made to create
an integrated network of activities to
deliver SPDP objectives organically grown
within and woven through the curriculum
• classes in specific subject areas such as Architectural History and
Theory, Building Technology and Environment, and Media and
Communication, run in tandem with the studio
• in ever increasing efforts at integration, skills and knowledge gained
in these classes are tested as applications within the studio
• with this process of creation and reflection, there is at the core of the
student’s learning within the study of architecture a development of
critical faculties with regard to their own work
• this self-critical context is suitably tempered to SPDP
• the SPDP process recognised this unique aspect of the study of
architecture as a supportive backdrop to the tenets of SPDP, and
stressed that its existing studio structure and culture already
supported and embraced the process ambition of SPDP, and had
existing tangible product from this process, vis a vis Progress File
components, in the form of the portfolio and the sketchbook
Dearing’s Progress File
(the Dearing Report, 1997)
the Progress File is the manifestation and
evidence of personal development
consisting of two elements:
• A transcript
• A means by which students can monitor,
build and reflect upon their personal
development
The Portfolio
• by its very nature the portfolio is reflective, and acts as
definitive graphic evidence that “the student has
participated in a range of learning contexts at each stage
and level of their programme
• the SPDP experience extended the remit of the
architectural portfolio to the logical incorporation of
SPDP objectives: that all academic work, including class
work be included in the students’ academic portfolio
• the physical portfolio became the physical embodiment
of the student’s SPDP, including the student’s
understanding of the process as much as outcome
SPDP within the Department of Architecture at Strathclyde
• SPDP has been introduced organically into the culture of the
Department to consolidate established pedagogy
• it was not introduced as an additional credit but integrated
seamlessly with existing coursework; the Learning
Enhancement Network at Strathclyde recommended
embedding SPDP to the point of invisibility
• it was not perceived as a tick box exercise; students were
encouraged to embrace the benefits of SPDP as a voluntary
act of self-awareness and life-long learning
• most important, SPDP in the Department was administered
by a single member of staff, the SPDP Coordinator whose
job was to plan, manage and coordinate
For SPDP to be successfully networked into all studios,
classes, tutorials, etc… it was critical that ALL STAFF:
• ‘buy into’ the common aspiration
• engage with the ambitions of integration
• are suitably inducted and supported while keeping
additional responsibilities to a minimum
to succeed, must have a ‘system/network/semi-lattice’
and a ‘manager’ in place; the SPDP Coordinator
thank you
W http://www.strath.ac.uk/architecture/staff/bagaeen.html
W http://homepages.strath.ac.uk/~cas04116/