John Rollo

Teaching and Learning in Collaborative Group Design Projects

Abstract The 200 years of apprentice/master tradition that underpins the atelier studio system is still at the core of much present-day architectural design education. Yet this tradition poses uncertainties for a large number of lecturers faced with changes in the funding of tertiary education. With reductions in one-to-one staff/student contact time, many educators are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain an atelier teaching model. If these deficiencies remain unchecked and design-based schools are unable to implement strategies to reduce the resource intensity of one-to-one studio teaching programmes, then, for many higher-education providers, current architectural education may be based on an untenable course structure. Rather than spreading their time thinly over a large number of individual projects, an increasing number of lecturers are setting group projects. This allows them to coordinate longer and more in-depth review sessions on a smaller number of assignment submissions. However, while the group model may reflect the realities of the design process in professional practice, the approach is not without shortcomings as a teaching and learning archetype for the assessment of individual student skill competencies. Hence, what is clear is the need for a readily adoptable andragogy for the teaching and assessment of group design projects. The following is a position paper that describes—with a focus on effective group structures and assemblage and fair assessment models—the background, methodology and early results of a Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant currently running at the School of Architecture and Building at Deakin University in Australia.

UrbanHeart : a design research forum

A studio in which students act as practitioner-researchers brings together communities, local authorities and professionals, offering a case study in design as research.

Adopting a computational approach to identifying and modelling future development initiatives within the urban context

Abstract In 2002 the State Government of Victoria, in partnership with the City of Greater Geelong and Deakin University, initiated an urban design framework to explore development opportunities of a series of redundant industrial sites adjacent to Geelong’s central activities area (CAA). One of the objectives of the framework was to explore a range of initiatives based on the expansion of the Deakin University Waterfront campus from 700 students to an expected cohort of 5000 students. Working with a set of predefined constructs for different types of city-based user groups, such as net floor space requirements and time/travel distances between facilities, the following paper presents a simple computational approach to assist in identifying, mapping, and spatially exploring different development scenarios.

Metiendo Vivendum: ‘By Measure We Must Live’

Convinced that his fathers work was arranged around an underlying structure, Robert Lutyens, in 1944, posed the challenge that ‘…someone will someday discover my fathers system of applied geometry’. Drawing on an analysis of the ground floor plans of 40 English country houses designed by Edwin Lutyens between 1889 and 1913, this paper considers Robert Lutyenss ‘Armature of Planes’, a theory which he closely associated with the development of his fathers work. The analysis reveals Edwin Lutyenss consistent use of ratios to structure his work.