The European Association for Architectural Education's annual gatherings foster an international community of people and of institutions dedicated to the critical and constructive dialogue on all aspects of teaching and researching on architecture. Each annual conference, as well as the biannual general meetings, are hosted by a member school and provide a specific perspective of acute as well as universal enquiry aimed at advancing the quality of architectural education in Europe and thus of architecture in general.
European Association for Architectural Education
Speculation and Iconicity in Chicagoan Skyscrapers: A History of Back and Forth
The skyline of many Chicagoan streets is being progressively disrupted by the appearance of a new generation of buildings whose shape, far from striving for an adequate composition and a balanced urban landscape, only aims to get the maximum number of square meters to other for sale or rent. The massive and occasionally peculiar silhouette of new building developments or extension of pre-existing premises is increasingly present in well-known neighborhoods such as Magnificent Mile or the Loop, where the high demand for housing has led developers to seek to optimize their earnings by maximizing the profitability of a given plot of land. Behind us is a whole generation of skyscrapers with a strong iconic quality, attained not only through the maximization of the number of stories, but also and fundamentally through their form and materiality. The three towers of the St. Regis designed by Jeanne Gang after the meaningful success of her design for the Aqua Tower, also in Chicago, seem to be among the last examples of a gilded age of which the Willis Tower and, mostly, the John Hancock Center, both by Skidmore, Owens and Merrill, and Fazlur Kahn and Bruce Graham, are the most prominent examples. All these buildings gave the city of Chicago an unmistakable skyline of great personality and unquestionable interest, capable of attracting visitors from all over the world to a city whose greatest tourist attraction is the architecture it has been able to produce at different periods of its history. However, this struggle for square footage is nothing new in the history of this American metropolis. In fact, it is at the genesis itself of the skyscraper typology, born precisely in Chicago mostly as a consequence of the fire which devastated the city in 1871. The new layout of the downtown streets made them wider, reducing the size of the resulting plots and requiring an increase in the number of stories in order to restore to the owners the surfaces they owned before the fire. Hence, buildings renowned as the nowadays disappeared Home Insurance Building by William Le Baron Jenney, relying on the technological development of means and materials, only aimed at restoring the profitability of the premises or even increasing it.
SESSION 2 It’s time! Architecture as synthesis
Copyright (c) 2025 Ivan Cabrera, Ernesto Fenollosa, Maria Piqueras https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Homo Ludens and Recreational Open Spaces: Enhancing Social Interaction Among University Students
The concept of Homo Ludens, introduced by Johan Huizinga (1938), identifies play as a fundamental element of culture and human interaction. Within this framework, play is not merely a leisure activity but a societal function that fosters connection, creativity, and social bonding. Huizinga emphasized that incorporating play into urban life nurtures the spirit of freedom, encouraging individuals to socialize in open and inclusive environments. However, the design of university campuses often overlooks the importance of dedicated play areas within recreational open spaces. This study investigates the main campus of Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, focusing on the role of play in fostering social interaction among students. Using the Homo Ludens theory as a conceptual framework and employing a qualitative case study method, this research analyzes how existing recreational open spaces facilitate or limit playful interaction. Findings reveal that although certain areas promote informal socialization, structured play opportunities are minimal and underutilized. As a result, the study argues for integrating purposeful play elements into campus planning to support student well-being and social connectivity. These results contribute to a broader understanding of how architectural design can synthesize educational, social, and recreational functions within the university context.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rümeysa Demirel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Hrubieszów House with a Climate: Resilient Living Environments Inspired by Genius Loci, Tradition and Nature as a Local Response to Global Challenges
Renowned architect and educator Professor Wiktor Zin (1925–2007) promoted heritage and landscape preservation through his TV series With a Pen and Charcoal and by inspiring lectures that often referenced his hometown, Hrubieszów. His legacy inspired the project Local Development of Hrubieszów – from Participation to Implementation, which included the Hrubieszów Climate House (Hrubieszowski Dom z Klimatem) section, led by the CUT Faculty of Architecture. The project documented disappearing traditional wooden houses and gardens to strengthen cultural identity, promote heritage preservation, and develop climate-resilient, tradition-based housing. Using a research-by-design approach with fieldwork and surveys, it applied transhistorical pedagogy and bionic design to creatively address present-day challenges. One of the key goals was to introduce students to Professor Zin’s vision of architecture – rooted in the native landscape – seen as a harmony of beauty, function and care. He believed buildings evolved from life and not just design, and praised wooden houses and gardens for their organic vitality. Field research, including at Zin’s family home – an archetype of a Hrubieszów homestead – deepened this understanding. The outcome was a set of projects dubbed 10+1 Hrubieszów Climate Houses and Gardens (10+1 Hrubieszowskich Domów i Ogrodów z Klimatem), created by students and academic teachers. These projects reinterpret local traditions using low-tech, nature-based, and circular design to build resilient, community-driven habitats. Rather than following standardised, design-catalogue – based solutions, they respond to the place and to people – proving that continuing tradition is not nostalgia, but a vital, locally rooted answer to global challenges. Sykta, Izabela, and Anna Staniewska, eds. House and Garden in the Landscape of Hrubieszów. History, Tradition, Spirit of the Place; House and Garden in the Landscape of Hrubieszów. Design in Harmony with Tradition and Climate; Gierbienis, Marcin, and Agnieszka Greniuk, eds. 10+1 Hrubieszów Houses and Gardens with a Climate. Design in the Context of Place and Time. Oficyna Wydawnicza Atut. Wrocławskie Wydawnictwo Oświatowe, Kraków – Hrubieszów, 2024.
Copyright (c) 2025 Izabela Sykta https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Concreteness and Carcass in Architecture and Education
A most effective way of learning is to intrinsically motivate students by challenging concrete tasks; this paper describes as a case study the seminar Concreteness, in which students work with concrete as a material. We deliberately chose this material as the central subject of our seven-year research project in the seminar Concreteness, part of the master’s programme at the School of Architecture at Eindhoven University of Technology. The use of concrete in post-war architecture has had a lasting impact on the urban landscape of the city. Concrete buildings and structures have become iconic symbols of the city’s history and culture. It is essential that all architects, designers and engineers have a good understanding of the inherent properties of the materials they use. This understanding must go beyond simply appreciating the aesthetic qualities of the materials and include a thorough understanding of their physical and structural properties. Furthermore, it is essential that these professionals develop a nuanced understanding of the production processes and systems used when working with the selected materials. This understanding must go beyond a theoretical basis rooted in quantitative data and visual examples and extend to the practical handling of the materials, including tactile experience, operational observation and reflection on the results of physical tests. Our mission was to unravel the power of a distinct concrete structure as the foundation for the architectural identity of a building. Each year, we focused on a specific city and visited projects by architects who were at the forefront of the local architectural debate and recorded this in interviews. The seminar places great emphasis on the meticulous study of existing buildings and design principles, while also using a wide range of exploratory, investigative and technical techniques. The seminar is not only theoretical; it also includes an extensive practical component in which students get to know the material intensively in various hands-on workshops. Western architecture is perpetuated through the medium of education, wherein knowledge and skills coalesce. Architects’ narratives and words are transmitted to successive generations; this process is an enduring facet of our cultural heritage.
Copyright (c) 2025 Tom T. Veeger https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Designing with Communities. Pedagogical Framework for Resilient Architectural Education
In an era overwhelmed by a culture driven towards standardisation and efficiency, DIY stands out as a cultural and political reaction. It is not only a construction method but also a social and educational device that places not only space, material, and time at the centre but also the human body and the community. This essay explores the pedagogical and territorial value of self-construction as a shared design practice between architecture schools, students and inhabitants. This approach could generate new forms of local resilience and collective awareness. Several references around the world use self-building as a pedagogical way of teaching and conceptualising architecture. Examples include Rural Studio (USA) and Chaal.Chaal.Agency (India), ConstructLab (Europe), BASEHabitat (Austria), and many others, ..., although with different languages, treat the model of research by design and design-driven approach. The link with the university spheres allows them to define a methodology applicable both at the pedagogical and research levels. Furthermore, these ‘associations’ employ a multidisciplinary team: architects, builders, sociologists, graphic designers, educators...This shared vision of interdisciplinary, collaborative working combines creativity and practice by doing. The present proposal aims to reflect on some DIY experi- ences activated in the AUIC School of the Politecnico di Milano courses with international students. The contexts were fragile areas (urban outskirts, remote mountainous zones, etc.). These experiences are not only defined as ‘technical building sites’ – where learning how to build by ‘recovering’ from ‘waste’ – but also as ‘social projects’ – where working with different ethnic and generational groups. These workshops demonstrate how acting together – with the crafts, in the long process of listening and trans- formation – brings meaning back to the project and creates caring links between students, territories and the local community to investigate co-design scenarios for experimentation and visions. The DIY workshop is conceived as a civic and pedagogical activator, producing light and symbolic infrastructures and tools for holistic education. Freear, Andrew, and Andrea Oppenheimer Dean. Rural Studio: Samuel Mock- bee and an Architecture of Decency. Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. Stavrides, Stavros. Common Space: The City as Commons. Zed Books, 2016.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alisia Tognon https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Not Knowing their Treasure: Tatami Endangered in Japan and Adapted in Europe
Traditional Japanese tatami, 6x3 feet rectangular mats featuring a compressed rice straw core covered with woven rush, have been highly regarded by European visitors from the 16th to the 20th centuries for their beauty and cleanliness. Initially, many Europeans found sitting or sleeping on tatami mats uncomfortable. However, owing to its biodegradable and vegan materials, an increasing number now choose tatami for practical reasons such as health benefits, space-saving in densely populated cities, and sustainability. A survey conducted with over 900 non-Japanese individuals (439 in 2020 and 463 in 2023), and interviews with users and vendors in cities like Barcelona (2022) and Torino, Rome, Bologna, and Paris (2023), revealed that European tatami buyers and sellers highly value natural and organic materials. They appreciate the scent, texture, and sustainability. Authentic natural tatami can last for centuries with proper surface replacement – a maintenance practice unfamiliar to many European users and vendors. There is a growing international demand for high-quality, made-in-Japan tatami; however, the supply is currently inadequate. Tatami rooms have become less common in modern Japanese homes, and the number of material producers has drastically decreased from over 10,000 in 1972 to only 260 by 2025. Consequently, most tatami sold in Europe is manufactured in China, but this supply may soon diminish due to high labour costs and low profitability. Without intervention, tatami could disappear from the market. In Japan, domestic demand for tatami has declined since the 1970s, coinciding with the rise of concrete housing. Despite its proven antibacterial and insect-repelling properties, misinformation regarding mould and pests has contributed to this decline. The shift towards artificial tatami-like mats is also notable: currently, only 10% of Japanese tatami uses traditional rice straw and Japanese rush; the majority is made from polystyrene foam, synthetic rush made from plastic or coated paper, or Chinese rush. There is potential for international trade to help bridge this supply-demand gap. Educating users on the practical value of traditional materials and craftsmanship is also imperative.
Copyright (c) 2025 Arno Suzuki https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Design-build Projects: New Urban Experiences through Short-term Spatial Experiments
Practical urban research and new spatial experiences in the form of short-term experiments, hands-on construction, informal atmosphere, and co-learning define the approach of architectural summer schools. These non-formal, design- build programs have evolved into a distinct pedagogy, often implemented by architecture, design, and art schools through institutional partnerships. Back in 2008, architects and educators J. Anderson and C. Priest launched the Live Projects program at the School of Architecture at Oxford Brookes University and co-founded the Live Projects Network that promotes this approach in architectural education and practice and currently it serves as a catalogue and wide reference base for such projects. However, integrating these hands-on learning experiences into formal curricula remains a challenge for many universities. Formal architectural education often lacks engagement with real-world needs and users. Students do not acquire enough practical construction skills and knowledge of current materials and techniques, and remain confined in the classroom. These observations led to the establishment of the Summer School of Ephemeral Architecture and Spatial Design in Latvia. Titled FestivaL’and, it has been running since 2018 in collaboration with the Summer Theater Festival and the Municipality of Valmiera. FestivaL’and explores contemporary, short-term architectural and spatial design interventions as catalysts for rethinking city spaces. During the camp, participants gain knowledge, skills and experience in the process of design creation, from research, ideation, tectonic experimentation to hands-on 1:1 scale timber construction techniques. Interventions often take place in abandoned buildings, underused spaces, or inactive peripheries. These are approached through cultural-historical analysis and participatory design methods, with the goal of proposing temporary architectural solutions that activate the sites and help evaluate their future potential. The interventions function as placemaking pilots that test spatial possibilities, foster inclusivity, and engage the local community. The structure of the summer school allows for flexibility, experimentation, and immediate public feedback. The paper will reflect on FestivaL’and’s six cases striving to bridge informal education with formal curricula, learning and envisioning urban transformations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Dina Suhanova https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Designing Contemporary Architectures for the Revitalization of Traditional Hamlets in Lessinia, Verona
The paper investigates the role of traditional materials in defining local architectural identities and the potential for their integration into contemporary design and architectural education. The study is based on initiatives carried out at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies and the School of Architecture Urban Planning Construction Engineering, and articulates along two main trajectories. The first involved an international design studio engaging foreign students in field-based learning activities in Lessinia, a mountainous region north of Verona. The second includes three ongoing master’s theses developed within the Architecture and Urban Design program. The research focuses on the architectural heritage of Lessinia, where the use of local limestone has historically informed settlement patterns and construction techniques, resulting in a vernacular architecture characterised by a specific material culture. This tradition demonstrates a coherent constructive logic, with a recognizable tectonic language developed through the skilled use of available resources (Magagnato et al., 1982; Turri et al., 2003). The study questions how such legacy can be meaningfully referenced in contemporary architectural practices, avoiding stylistic imitation or reductive application of preservation norms. In addition to design and material considerations, the study addresses broader socioeconomic processes – such as depopulation, tourism-driven transformations, and seasonal use – that impact the conservation and transformation of this built heritage. The two educational formats have generated different interactions with the territory, combining fieldwork with collaborations involving local institutions and stakeholders. The paper aims to contribute to ongoing debates concerning the role of traditional building cultures in contemporary design processes, and their relevance in architectural education. The case of Lessinia offers a critical framework for exploring sustainable and culturally informed approaches to rural revitalisation, with implications at both local and international levels (Lin and Devabhaktuni, 2020). Lin, J. and Devabhaktuni S. As found houses: experiments from self – builders in rural China. Applied research + design publishing, 2020 Magagnato, L., Pasa, A., Zorzi, F., Pavan, V., Muscarà, C. Architettura nei monti Lessini. Taucias Gareida, 1982. Turri, E., Pavan, V., Trincanato, C. B., L’architettura di pietra in Lessinia. Un incontro con la pietra, la cultura, l’ingegno, a ritroso nel tempo. Numero Uno Design Book, 2003.
Copyright (c) 2025 Gerardo Semprebon https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Artisanal Intelligence as an Architectural Project Methodology: From line to pixel.
In contemporary architecture, design methodology is in tension between the rise of new digital tools and the persistence of the artisanal creative process. While computational resources offer immediacy, precision and unlimited formal exploration, the artisanal process, ensures cultural roots, conceptual depth, creative intuition and critical thinking. A reflection on how to integrate both approaches without renouncing a committed and identitarian architecture is essential. The adoption of tools such as artificial intelligence or parametric design has led to a digital immediacy that threatens the intellectual rigor of the architect. This contribution offers a critical analysis of these dilemmas, which challenge the foundations of the discipline, opening a dialogue between the design tradition and contemporary digital culture. What does it mean to design in an environment intervened by algorithms? The key lies in enabling the project to emerge from a coherent negotiation between memory and present, local and the global, artisanal and computational. In The Craftsman, Richard Sennett defends the value of the artisanal process, developed through meticulous, patient and iterative practice. The craftsman – and the true architect is one – is guided not only by efficiency, but by an ethical commitment to excellence in making. Creativity arises from the constant dialogue between hand, eye and mind, especially through trial and error. This intellectual reflection finds concrete application in the framework of the European project The Use of AI Tools in Interior Design to Create Aesthetic, Inclusive, and Sustainable Built Environment, involving Krakow University of Technology, Politecnico di Milano, RISEBA University of Applied Sciences, AGH University of Krakow, and CEU Cardenal Herrera University. This European project works as an active pedagogical laboratory, exploring the integration of architectural knowledge and emerging technologies. Thus, artificial intelligence has been incorporated into project-based subjects, prioritising the creation of models or sketches and encouraging thinking. These are subsequently digitised, processed by AI, and post-edited using other tools. Results from student work suggest a hybrid strategy, combining traditional sketching with AI tools throughout the design process, preserving artisanal dimension in the act of designing.
Copyright (c) 2025 Andrés Ros Campos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Developing Students’ Drawing Skills with the Use of Real Projects at Architectural Faculties
The increasing requirements regarding the level of education of architecture students and their competences necessary for their future work are a constant challenge for academic teachers. Curricula are constantly being transformed to reconcile the tradition of architectural schools with the complexities of the present. This paper discusses examples of new topics for freehand drawing courses, taught to students of Landscape Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture Cracow University of Technology (CUT) in Poland. They used real projects and teamwork (Project Based Learning, Problem Based Learning). An example of such activities is participa- tion in: (1) the plein air drawing and painting in Hrubieszów carried out as part of the research project “Local develop- ment of Hrubieszów: from participation to implementation” financed by the “Local Development Programme” under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area; (2) the competition on the occasion of 80th CUT anniversary; (3) the poster competition that engages students in the search for innovative visions of the entrance to the Krakow metro. The article is based on the latest scientific research on implementing Project Based Learning and Problem Based Learning in architectural education. It also uses the observational method based on many years of pedagogical experience and the experimental method. The aim of the article is to show that the implementation of authentic projects (close to real challenges in the future profession) and topics based on cooperation during freehand drawing classes contribute to greater engagement (seeing the specific purpose of the work and its meaning, students are more motivated), development of soft skills (communication, teamwork, negotiation), better assimilation, and long-term memory of experiences. It prepares them better for the future work of an architect, in which problem-solving and creative thinking are very important. The article concludes that drawing skill becomes an antidote to the dehumanising effects of artificial intelligence and mechanised learning. The engaging process of drawing becomes a pretext to meet one’s own thoughts and confront peers. Involving students in solving real problems, during the pleasant drawing process, teaches them independence, cooperation, and communication. This method is more effective and increases learning outcomes.
Copyright (c) 2025 Beata Makowska https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Intensity versus Efficiency: Research Walking as a Method for Learning Architecture from the User Experience
This paper explores the possibilities, techniques and advantages of using the research walking method in architectural education. This modern visual method generates new knowledge based on researchers’ direct experiences and findings. Its use in architectural education is grounded in a rationale of progressive pedagogy, which fosters critical thinking and meaning-making. It’s also about teaching methods based on the multiple intelligence model and the importance of spatial skills in logical thinking, as well as new ways of understanding space that are intuitive and creative. Research walking enables architectural spaces to be considered not as abstract, algorithmic products, but as complex multimodal environments whose elements are meaningful places rather than buildings. Walking methods diverge starkly from walking data (whether through the use of GPS or an emphasis on mobility); they are qualitative, highly engaging methodologies frequently employed in participatory design and environmental research. Rather than empathising with users, the rationale is that researchers become users themselves for the duration of the walk. Walking and noting impressions provides a distinctive ethnographic viewpoint, blending time commitment with careful observation and discussion. The observations in this work were largely based on teaching experience with architecture students. A mixed, partly structured walking methodology was employed, combining techniques such as walking observations, interviews, photo stories and transect walks, while analysing selected buildings for public use in Cracow. This methodology involved repetitive walks employing different modes of action. On the one hand, there was more aimless walking, focusing on its stimulating nature and incorporating photography and group discussions. On the other hand, there was more structured research walking, involving the use of a questionnaire and observational notes to take an inventory of the analysed space. The reflections gathered during the latter were transformed into specific data on contextual relationships, accessibility, clarity, responsiveness and human scale. Overall, the observational information gathered during these walks revealed unexpected contexts for spatial and social interactions, offering students the chance to communicate their positionality and acknowledge their context.
Copyright (c) 2025 Angelika Lasiewicz-Sych https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Form and Strategy: Three Urban Design Learning Experiences for Intermediate Cities
To what scale can the architect’s design operate today? This paper presents the outcomes of recent teaching experiences carried out in intermediate cities in Catalonia, contexts where conceiving the city as a project is still a field of work for architects, and where it is essential to explore new ways of planning amidst an increasingly dynamic and complex context. These experiences stem from the final- year urban design studios of the architecture program at ETSAB, which focus on the development of complex urban and territorial projects. The paper shares three pedagogical approaches focused on redesigning the urban backgrounds of intermediate cities. These are hidden, vacant, or expectant areas behind the dominant ‘figure’ of the city, where the biophysical ground remains evident and which can be strategic in providing coherence and cohesion to urban form. The first approach explores an inverted scalar method, beginning with small, singular fragments and leading to strategic planning: from form to systems. The second emphasizes experiential read- ings of these spaces through walking and immersion, helping students sense their beauty and potential in person. The third centers on learning from references using cardboard study models, allowing students to grasp spatial qualities by touching, rebuilding and comparing valuable urban projects. The paper concludes with a reflection on the role of urbanists in the improvement of intermediate cities, empha- sizing the need for an approach that integrates a renewed appreciation of the long-tradition of artisanal skills in urban design with a more strategic vision aimed at guiding open-processes. Aureli, Pier Vittorio, ed. The city as a project. Berlin: Ruby Press, 2013. Clua, Álvaro, ed. Urban Backgrounds. Projects for the green belt of Igualada. Barcelona: Laboratori d’Urbanisme de Barcelona, 2023. De Solà-Morales, Manuel, et al. El Projecte Urbà: Una Experiència Docent. Barcelona: UPC, 1999. Juel-Christiansen, Carsten, ed. Transitions. Space in the Dispersed City. København: The Architectural Magazine, 2000. Parcerisa, Josep. Forma Urbis: Cinco ciudades bajo sospecha. Barcelona: LUB, 2012. Parcerisa, Josep, and Carles Crosas, eds. Barcelona Enllaços. Barcelona: LUB, 2013. Riboulet, Pierre. ‘La Ville Comme Oeuvre’. In Conférences Paris d’architectes. Paris: Pavillon de l’Arsenal, 1994. Russo, Michelangelo, et al. Transitional Landscapes. Macerata: Quodlibet, 2023.
Copyright (c) 2025 Álvaro Clua https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Crafting Knowledge: The Manifold Possibilities of Fragments-Models for Architectural Design Pedagogy
Working with physical models involves craft as a form of ongoing research – through gestures, through both physical and intellectual acts. Among the tools of architectural design, models most vividly reveal time as fundamental to architectural quality. The haptic and reflective process of model-making fosters a unique, irreplaceable form of spatial knowledge. This paper examines the performative and heuristic dimensions of model-making in the design studios the authors lead at the University of Naples Federico II. Methodologically, it draws on complementary case studies, such as design studios projects in undergraduate courses, and exhibition installations based on the reinterpretation of notable architectural examples. In each, the design process begins from fragments to construct imaginary reference points, thereby generating unforeseen spatial scenarios. The pedagogical objective is to re-center manual practice amid a broader trend toward the dematerialization of digital processes. Through attentive ‘care’ in making, students acquire tacit knowledge of material potentials: they learn how fragments articulate possibilities and, in turn, how design can remain open-ended rather than merely representational. This counters the challenge in contemporary pedagogy of privileging abstract workflows over embodied making. Work- ing with physical models in design studios involves craft as ongoing research – through gestures, physical and intellectual acts. Among design tools, models best reveal time as the key to architectural quality. The haptic, reflective process of model making builds unique, irreplaceable spatial knowledge. Composing fragments suggest a practice rejecting traditional completeness. Rather, it is understood as a process carried out through partial elements that generate perspectives and allow the viewer to contemplate shapes under light and the possible futures of the projected design idea. By situating fragments at the heart of studio pedagogy, this work introduces a new perspective on architectural education: design proposals become non-rigid schemas, modifiable in response to emerging conditions. The architect and architecture student thus inscribe themselves within a transforming world, re-activating the generative power of formal configuration as a means to envision – and enact – alternative realities.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alberto Calderoni, Marianna Ascolese, Luigiemanuele Amabile https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The PopUp Workshop, learning with material
The PopUp Workshop is a prototyping space where students can experiment with projects and their implementation on a one-to-one scale using real materials. The workshop promotes an interdisciplinary and experimental pedagogy in which learning by doing is central. This article presents four pedagogical approaches used in the PopUp Workshop: * Verification and Modification. Students learn to verify and develop theoretical teachings through physical experimentation. They test the feasibility of implementation and assembly design in full-scale realizations. Based on observations and difficulties encountered, variants are developed. * Learning through Play. Students discover design principles, such as ruled surfaces or reciprocal structures, through playful exercises. Developing several variants simultaneously highlights their expressive richness. * Thinking with materials. Designing with materials turns the project process upside down. Form is determined as much by the interaction between the designer and the material as by other parameters, such as location or function. The goal is exploration rather than knowledge; experimentation and failure drive research. The focus is not on mastering a technique, but on establishing a research method and discovering creative potential. * Design, build, inhabit. Working on projects in public spaces gives students the opportunity to not only build a project but also live in it and test the developed concepts. Dialogue with clients, collective work, coordination, definition of common objectives, and consultation with craftsmen are all valuable experiences. The PopUp workshop provides an opportunity to develop a greater sensitivity to materiality, as well as to collective and transdisciplinary work. Students must learn to handle the unknown and seize the opportunities that arise during the project’s development. The method itself is more important than working with materials: working directly with matter makes us more observant, attentive, and accepting. It leads us to welcome inspiration from what’s already there. Buri, Hani. “La matière qui pense : table ronde sur “l’enseignement à l’atelier PopUp””. Revue Tracés n0. 3543 (2024) 30-33 Ingold, Tim. Making : Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2013.
Copyright (c) 2025 Hani Buri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Polyrhythmic Studio: Time, Space, and Structures in the Educational Architecture Studio
Education takes time. Studio-based learning recognises this and provides a pedagogical environment that can afford a slower, more immersive, deliberate experience. This paper presents previously unpublished research from the Studio Properties research project. It explores how daily patterns, project cycles, varying intensities of the studio, and designing alongside others are time-based architectures that structure learning in the studio. However, the difficulty for educators is that such architectures are often invisible, tacit, and assumed, meaning they can be easily dismissed under resources and cost pressures in contemporary higher education contexts. The Studio Properties book makes tacit and explicit the properties of studio for educators, giving them tools to examine, surface and articulate the value of studio in the face of increasingly commoditised higher education environments. In particular, it recognises the value of studio as offering: the time and place for immersion and the long durée of a studio experience; the textures of activity in studio as rhythms acting as curricular entities; student agency to create their own learning spaces. Studio Properties challenges reductive ideas of education as immediate, standardised, or transactional and instead argues for the value of studio as a deliberate, polyrhythmic pedagogy.
Copyright (c) 2025 James Benedict Brown, James Corazzo, Derek Jones, Elizabeth Boling, Colin M. Grey, Nicole Lotz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Unstable State of Drawing as a Critical Agency
Architecture as a discipline and drawing as it’s primary craft are often considered as a solution-providers, offering stable responses to spatial demands. These ‘architectural solutions’ are highly conditioned by the building industry’s quests for speed, financial efficiency and investor’s benefice. This common practice is resulting in simplifying the overall capacity of architectural creative thinking and doing. Can we use the unstable state of drawing as critical agency for asking questions instead of providing solutions? Here presented approach suggests the design research domain as a field of action towards the ethical and mindful architecture. This paper elaborates on the design-driven research processes within the educational context of the second year of Master studies at the Faculty of architecture, University of Belgrade (2024/25).1 The inquiry is founded on the methodology of liminal drawing (2) and related experiment in the teaching course Tactics of the design-driven research. Bnin-Bninski defines liminal state of drawing based on the notion of preliminary (3) as a design research critical tactic confronted to the long-term established routines and procedures in the architectural design. The starting premises for this course include the awareness and emphatic relation between the spaces we inhabit and the spaces we project.4 The discussed results are the individual student works of hanging mobile structures (strings and folded paper) of spatial segments arranged in the unstable state of relational constellations. 1. Anđelka Bnin-Bninski. “Tactics of the design-driven research.” 2. Anđelka Bnin-Bninski. “The role of architectural drawing in the dynamics of living space partition.” 3. Andrew Benjamin. “The Preliminary: Notes on the Force of Drawing.” 4. Claus Pedersen et al., eds., CA2RE+: Strategies of design-driven research.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anđelka Bnin-Bninski https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The practice of architecture stands at the threshold of a major paradigm shift. The longstanding model – rooted in Enlightenment ideals that equated development and progress with new construction – is increasingly being questioned. In its place, alternative practices are emerging that promote new sensibilities, attitudes, and mindsets. As Enlightenment ideals give way to new materialist perspectives, a once-marginalized vocabulary – centered on care, repair, and empathy – is regaining prominence in architectural discourse. Restoration, once primarily associated with historical and cultural monuments, is now being reconsidered in relation to all existing structures. This shift reflects a growing sense of necessity and ethical responsibility on the part of architects toward the planet, cities, and communities. The architectural profession is moving away from the image of the white, European, male architect – portrayed as a prophetic figure – toward a more grounded vision of the architect as a specialized and responsible citizen. This alternative paradigm calls for a redefinition of architectural education as well. The culture of architecture schools must be critically re-examined, making space for concepts such as care and repair within curricula. This re-evaluation should encompass the types of courses offered, the nature of design studio projects, and the pedagogical approaches employed. Furthermore, the imperative to care for the planet must be extended to caring for students themselves, beginning with a reconsideration of the jury system. This paper explores how integrating practices of care can contribute to repairing the institutional and pedagogical structures of architecture schools.
Copyright (c) 2025 Şebnem Yücel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Continuing the (un)finished: A Dialogue with the Painting
Contemporary architectural education often prioritizes originality over continuity, even in adaptive reuse. This mindset reduces layered spaces into geometric abstractions – mere volumes awaiting intervention, rather than acknowledging them as lived spaces with their own identity, memory, and atmosphere. This paper challenges the tendency among students to view existing buildings as empty shells, advocating for a pedagogical approach rooted in sensitivity and slowness. Drawing on Pérez de Arce’s idea that the built environment evolves over time through the gradual layering of elements. This incremental process confirms and reinforces a space, imbuing it with collective experiences, and socio-cultural and spatial values.(1) Erasing this accumulation means losing something meaningful and qualitative. The question arises: what does it truly mean to continue a lived space, and how can it be taught? This contribution discusses an exercise of the research seminar Genius Loci, coordinated by Koenraad van Cleem-Poel, in which students engage in a nuanced dialogue between theory and practice through the in-depth study of a painting. By interpreting an artwork’s visual, emotional, and symbolic layers, students cultivate a sensitivity that informs their own translations – soft interventions and personal interpretations that maintain a respectful dialogue with the original. Through qualitative analysis of student projects, the paper demonstrates an approach that fosters sensitivity towards existing conditions and promotes a design language rooted in continuation rather than demolition. The research advocates for an open-ended approach, refined by an attitude of sensitivity towards the lived space and its thoughtful reuse. In this process of reflection and redefinition, the painting serves as a metaphor for the lived space, encouraging interaction to continue rather than to erase. 1. Pérez de Arce, Rodrigo. “Urban Transformations & the Architecture of Additions.” Architectural Design 48, no. 4 (1978): 237–266.
Copyright (c) 2025 Malinde Valee https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Typological Strategies for reUse: the Bullring as a Catalyst of Urban Transformation in Santarém
Santarém is a medium-sized city in Portugal where the bullring and the fair defines an emblematic urban space. However, the symbolic importance of this public space does not correspond today to a materialized and recognizable form. The gradual collapse of the activities in the Campo da Feira and the spatial vagueness of the space surrounding the arena building, along with the urban imprecision in defining the city’s limits, are emerging challenges that the city has faced since 1994, then began a process of gradual abandon- ment associated with the relocation of the National Agriculture Fair to the outskirts of the city. This communication aims to highlight an innovative intervention strategy that has made it possible to formulate hypotheses for the reuse of the bullring and the consequent transformation of the old urban space of Campo da Feira in Santarém. It describes the process of applied research, the result of collaboration between the Lisbon School of Architecture and the City Council of Santarém, which, using the tools of urban design and urban morphology, sought to design a diversified public space formal program for the former Campo da Feira, aimed at multiple modes of use and appropriation, both permanent and transitory, or even inter- mittent, but which was rooted in the historical continuity of the city and which valued the pre-existing buildings, adapt- ing them to intense public use. Methodologically, the work was essentially organized into two phases: an initial phase focused on the morphological study of the city, and the main phase, thinking on design, used a series of hypotheses to promote debate and involve the municipal executive and the population in the search for a solution for such an important area for Santarém. The results we propose to present reveal the complexity of the process in design terms and political terms, which led us to opt for a design-based methodology based on typological strategies for reuse and transformation. These strategies are based on four design scenarios that formalize possible, plausible and distinct hypotheses, which allowed us to support the discussion, the political choices to be made, and the main project options to be materialized, rather than a closed project that expressed one final and finished solution.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sérgio Padrão Fernandes, Carlos Dias Coelho, Luís Carvalho, Joana Malheiro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Who Owns the Streets? The Case of the Zollo Alley in Bilbao
One of the most relevant roles in architecture professional practice and, consequently, one of the most relevant issues to be taught in schools, is that of social leadership. In this will, almost duty, to guide society on the way to improving its quality of life and ensuring progress, architects have not always found the support of political and economic establishment and, occasionally, they have become developers of their own proposals. There are many buildings that have survived to the present day whose cost was totally or partially covered by the architects who designed them, in their eagerness to see them completed. And the current trend of refurbishing public spaces and buildings is no exception. In the Basque Country there is a deep-rooted tradition of meeting in small public or semi-public spaces called txokos or txakolines. In 1955 the Txakolin Zollo was built in Bilbao, one of the most popular of these places. However, two decades later, the commercial and bourgeois development of the two important streets connected by this alley led to an apparent divorce with the surrounding neighborhood. Given the lack of interest from the municipality, its neighbors decided to paint the walls and to treat the space in an experimental way, giving it a strong personality and turning it into an icon. But commercial activity decreased even more and with it came the progressive abandonment of this alley that reached the 2000s in very poor condition. In the early 2020s a young architect bought one of the premises and initiated a series of legal, but mainly architectural and social, actions that have made it possible to recover this space for the Bilbao citizenry and visitors. Aware of its value, its demolition was never an option. Commercial and public spaces have been refurbished and recovered, giving it back its own traditional activity but from a contemporary perspective. Newly inhabited by artisans and artists, the alley now has a presence on social media, hosts different kinds of events and enjoys a vibrant activity and a second chance as a commercial street thanks to the conviction and sponsorship of a young architect.
Copyright (c) 2025 Íñigo Onzain, Maria Oliver, Ivan Cabrera, Alicia Llorca https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Learning from the Existing: Spa Settlements as a Pedagogical Framework for Environmentally Sensitive Spatial Futures
This paper promotes a value shift in architectural education – from tabula rasa design toward reimagining inherited spaces as resources for future transformation. Spa settlements are framed as living pedagogical contexts for anti-extractive, regenerative approaches to the built environment. The study is situated within the SPATTERN project, which advocates an educational shift placing existing spa settlements at the core of integrating spatial history, environmental systems, and socio-cultural dynamics. The paper reflects on five studio-based curricula at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Architecture, engaging spa settlements – often in fragile ecosystems – as bases for developing no-demolish pedagogies. These challenge extractive logics and promote care-based spatial futures. The curricula range from undergraduate studios on adaptive transformation of urban heritage through critical mapping and scenario design (1) to master-level studios exploring spa heritage reprogramming (2), hybrid naturalities, and multisensory well-being. Students were encouraged to work with, not against, inherited spatial fabrics – treating heritage as dynamic and shaped by environmental, social, and experiential forces. Through methods like site diagnostics, speculative programming, behavioral mapping, and environmental storytelling, these frameworks redefine the value of the already-built and propose new typologies rooted in care, circularity, and climate sensitivity. Spa settlements, with layered materiality, health infrastructure, and entwined histories of landscape and architecture, offer fertile ground for pedagogical innovation. These studios promote a future-facing view of heritage aligned with education grounded in place, history, and speculative imagination. 1. Djokić, Vladan, Milica Milojević, and Mladen Pešić.2021. “Design Studio 06U.” In Review: Best Practices in Educating Sustainability and Heritage, 174–179. Belgrade: University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture. 2. Ristić Trajković, Jelena, Aleksandra Milovanović, and Ana Nikezić. 2021. “Reprogramming Modernist Heritage: Enhancing Social Wellbeing by Value-Based Programming Approach in Architectural Design.” Sustainability 13 (19): 11111. https://doi.org/10.3390/su131911111. Acknowledgment: This research was supported by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia, Grant No. 7408, https://spattern.org/.
Copyright (c) 2025 Aleksandra Milovanović, Mladen Pešić, Jelena Ristić Trajković, Milica Milojević, Verica Krstić, Ana Nikezić, Vladan Đokić https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Avoid Demolition: How Can Architects Foster the Preservation of Buildings?
Demolishing existing buildings poses significant environmental, economic, and socio-cultural challenges worldwide. In Germany, reforms to the building code in the 1990s replaced the requirement for a demolition permit with a simple notification procedure. This shift has made it easier to demolish non-protected buildings, conflicting with the European Green Deal’s goals for resource conservation and climate protection. While the preservation and continued use of existing buildings make a significant contribution to the conservation of grey energy, architects still have only marginal influence on demolition decisions, as these are often made before they are commissioned by building owners and investors. Against this backdrop, questions arise as to who the key players are in demolition decisions, how architects are currently contributing to reducing or avoiding demolition, and what tools are available to them to influence these decisions. This study examines these dynamics through a research-oriented elective module at the School of Architecture Bremen (SoAB), led by the Chair of Sustainable Planning and Building in Urban Contexts. Advanced Bachelor’s and Master’s students participated in the module, analyzing real-world projects at risk of demolition. Employing methods such as media research, stakeholder mapping, and SWOT analysis, students investigated the motivations, communication strategies, and key actors involved in demolition processes. Through thought experiments, students developed proposals for the adaptive reuse of threatened buildings, showcasing the potential for innovative solutions. The findings highlight the need to equip not only architects and planners, but also developers, investors, and policymakers with the knowledge and tools to prioritize building preservation. Early involvement of architects, beginning in Phase 0 (the pre-planning phase), and the reintroduction of demolition permits are identified as crucial strategies for aligning the built environment with sustainability objectives and safeguarding buildings for future generations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Daniela Konrad https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
It’s Time to reUse! Explorative Design Strategies to Inhabiting the Built City
Contemporary times present us with challenges that we sometimes fail to predict. Some that we can consider extreme, such as climate events, military conflicts, and intense migratory flows; others that result from altering the behaviour of our societies, such as tourist pressure and digital nomadism, manifesting in the lack of affordable housing or refuge spaces, which should make us all consider different living strategies. Through an innovative pedagogical experience at FA.ULisboa’s Summer Schools, over three years, based on a design explorative approach, we raised awareness among the students on the fundamental topic of “reUse the built city”, understanding it as a process of appropriation, transformation, resignification, and even transgression of preexisting built structures. Considering demolition outdated, existing built structures can be transformed into affordable, updated inhabitable spaces that preserve resources and even collective memories of urban spaces. Methodologically, each year, we selected different case studies to test design-based solutions to similar problems: ruined and abandoned built structures in 2021 (fortresses and city walls of Setúbal); decommissioned urban fabrics under transformation in 2022 (eastern riverfront of Marvila in Lisbon); underused buildings with recognition of high heritage value in 2024 (Convento de Cristo in Tomar). Bearing in mind that these intensive experiences bring together students and professors from different European schools of architecture, design procedures, from concepts to their materialisation, were held through alternative paths. The results of each workshop become an exhibition that provides each place with a new critical view of itself, based on a comprehensive model that gathers the design studio projects. Each design studio builds a piece of the common ground, representing a proposal for inhabiting built structures. Each proposal is based on an integrated vision of the preexistence and an articulated relationship with the projects and with each of the groups. In this sense, all the outputs from each design studio become fragments of the collective proposal. The goal of each design immersive experience in inhabiting existing buildings is to constitute a working manifesto for the reuse of the city.
Copyright (c) 2025 Carlos Dias Coelho, Sérgio Padrão Fernandes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Roles of the Everyday: Potential Impacts of Architectural Recycling as a Key for the Transition
Addressing the diffuse city from a perspective of ecological transition1 allows us to broaden the horizons of heritage adaptation to an interpretation of everyday architecture (2) as a resource. The contribution investigates recycling projects (3) that enhance their resources out of the building’s borders, proposing a vision in which the building stock plays a key role. The classical approach to transition, assessed by technical parameters, is challenged to reflect on new life cycles that propose attitudes with systemic potential and a long-term perspective. To face the contradictions between consumption and abandonment, is now necessary to develop approaches driven by broad objectives that translate global intentions into local impacts. Looking at the deep re-interpretation proposed by recycling projects (4), new possibilities can be found in tackling buildings as possible drivers for a city’s creation (5) based on available resources. Projects such as the Zinneke in Brussels, Luise 19E by Undjurekbrüggen, and Peveril Garden and Studio by Sanchez Benton architects outline three ways of dealing with the contemporary need for urgency and durability according to different targeted effects on context. Through the analysis of the case studies, however rare in the panorama, we will extract replicable principles and actions capable of having a direct impact on the environmental context and also a didactic potential based on the possible repeatability of the approach and contextual declination. The aim is to identify research perspectives based on realism and pragmatism that can be translated into widespread practices, connecting environmental culture and communities. 1. Bennett, John W. The Ecological Transition: Cultural Anthropology and Human Adaptation. AldineTransaction, 1976. 2. Harris, S., “Everyday architecture.” In Architecture of the Everyday, edited by S. Harris, D. Berke, Princeton Architectural Press, 1997. 3. Ciorra, P. and Marini, S. (edited by), Re-cycle Italy. Strategie per l’architet- tura, la città e il pianeta. Electa, 2011. 4. Bocchi R., “Recycle”. In Recycle theory. Dizionario illustrato / Illustrated dictionary, edited by S. Marini and G. Corbellini Quodlibet, 2016. 5. De Carlo G., “È tempo di girare il cannocchiale.” Spazio e società, no. 54, (1991): 4-5.
Copyright (c) 2025 Silvia Di Mauro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Within the no-demolish approach, the proposal introduces a new design strategy based on a process of urban erosion for the areas in need of urban transformation. Observing in particular the vast areas born through the building boom of the 1960s, where the city has grown out of proportion, saturating green and common spaces, the proposed strategy becomes an alternative to total demolition, envisaging a process of progressive erosion which follows the characteristics of Benjaminian porosity. The term porosity, the pivotal theme of the text Naples by Walter Benjamin and Asia Lacjs (1925) has had a profound effect on architectural culture. Porosity has become a metaphor aimed at understanding urban space, characterized by complexity, stratifications, variations in volumes and voids, and processes of continuous transformation. Along this terms it could be possible to intervene within the urban fabric in concrete construction. The structural independence between the grid of pillars and beams and the horizontal surfaces of the floors, as well as between the façade walls and the internal partitions, makes it possible to insert voids on the ground floor as well as on the upper floors, with limited constructive and economic difficulties.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alessandra Como https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Growing from What Remains: Reuse at the Center of Practice and Education through the Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture
This paper presents a case study of a repurposed swimming pool to introduce the Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture – a framework advocating for the reuse of existing buildings rather than their demolition and reconstruction. Evolving from Ursula K. Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, this theory reimagines architecture not as a heroic act of creating from empty plots, but as a relational and collaborative process that flourishes through existing structures. The focal case is a transformation project in the Florya Atatürk Forest, a significant landscape project established by Atatürk in the 1930s. After years of forestation efforts, bureaucrats occupying the forest for private use constructed villas and a swimming pool in the 1990s. Following a political shift in 2019, when a new mayor committed to reclaiming the forest for public use, the private villas were converted into offices for the Istanbul Planning Agency, and the swimming pool was repurposed into a public event space. In this context, the modest pool becomes a powerful tool for reclaiming public land and fostering collective engagement. While the paper begins with this case study, it expands into a discussion of the 14 principles of the Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture, as exhibited in the Venice Architecture Biennale, in 2023. The theory critiques the construction industry’s addiction to building – often driven by economic reasons rather than spatial necessity – resulting in an excess of unused structures. This excess calls for reuse-focused strategies in both practice and education. Although adaptive reuse has gained traction in recent decades, architectural education largely remains fixated on designing new buildings. When studio projects involve existing structures, students often struggle, as if architecture’s value could only be measured in novelty or scale. Yet, existing structures are relational; they introduce complexity, messiness, and resistance – qualities that, paradoxically, make architecture more robust. This paper asks: can the transformation of existing structures take center stage in both the construction industry and architectural education? Writing as the designer of the pool project, the author of the Carrier Bag Theory, and an educator working to restructure the architectural curriculum, I offer a multi-layered perspective on the possibilities of prioritizing reuse over destruction.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sevince Bayrak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Modernity teaches architecture a lesson in humility and makes it occupy an integral place in the hierarchy of global values, but nevertheless one of many important links in the chain of interdependencies affecting the condition of our world. This is not a degradation, but rather an opportunity to bring it back to reality and an order; to take a self-critical look in the mirror of its historical evolution (Heynen, 2024, 100005). Never before in history to such an extent has architecture had to confront its works with such an onslaught of research from disciplines seemingly distant from it, e.g.: environmental engineering, health sciences, environmental psychology etc., as it is today. A contemporary architect must not only be a visionary, but also a social negotiator for the value of architecture. The system of architectural education, despite its efforts, has not kept pace with the scale of these challenges. The speed at which new or long-standing and neglected problems are growing indicates that the transfer of knowledge should be based on a clear message – contemporary narratives are not given once and for all or necessarily universal. They are merely the currently available output of a transhistorical process constantly updating itself against changing needs and the availability of resources. In the context of subject of the future of professional education for architects, this abstract advocates: first, adopting the formula of problem-based knowledge transfer as paramount in the course of teaching, and thus opening students to analytical approaches and new dimensions of interdisciplinarity. The introduction of a course almost identical to the title of the conference – Transhistorical Experiences, which would problematically and comparatively analyze contemporary issues against the backdrop of the chronology of past lessons already learnt and non-architectural conditions. Thirdly, the introduction of mandatory interdepartmental courses in which students from different disciplines would collaborate on a design task. Finally, to ‘de-hermetize’ architecture schools through the mandatory introduction of design courses with the authentic participation of invited social groups, as well as the mandatory courses on social communication and mediation of architecture. Heynen, Hilde. 2024. “Architectural history today: Where do we stand? Where do we go?”. Review Article. Perspectives in Architecture and Urbanism 1 (2024) 100005
Copyright (c) 2025 Dorota Wantuch-Matla https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Mallorca is a landscape of contrasts, desires, and contradictions. This island harbors a hybrid architectural ecosystem, nourished by constant external inputs and internal dynamics rooted in the optimization of local resources. This makes it an exemplary setting for a tense contemporary context, where architecture and its teaching must rise to the challenge of responding to contingencies and extremes in constant dialectic. This contribution to the congress presents a reflection on how to carry out a critical and propositional architectural synthesis in a context of contemporary controversies. Through the first edition of the intensive undergraduate elective at ETSAB-UPC entitled Mallorca Collage, this paper focuses on the teaching methodology applied, the key historical references behind its planning, and the pedagogical potential revealed through the resulting material. In this course, the Balearic island is used as a multifaceted field for student exploration and learning. Over one week, students work collectively – visiting, researching, and drawing fragments of the island’s architecture – to construct a precise and intentional architectural collage. The objective is to generate reflection through the development of a utopian, graphic and critical proposal of the present reality, as well as a speculative path toward alternative realities. Aquaecopark, Villa Camper, Lujo Bunker, Hotel Colmena, Más que Marès... are some of the course topics that act as catalysts and narrative threads for research into contemporary island issues such as water management, rural environments, tourism saturation, luxury housing, or construction resources. All the information gathered becomes a shared database. Aware of their realism, surrealism, and romanticism, each student’s proposal is a hybrid space shaped by collaboration, encounters, and explored places: a fragment of a Mallorca of Mallorcas, an architecture of architectures. From Italian Caprici, Alejandro de la Sota in Esquivel, Learning from Las Vegas, Made in Tokyo, the art of Akira Yamaguchi or the literature of Agustín Fernández Mallo, the course builds on a landscape of key references to revisit, from a contemporary lens, a synthetic, critical, and propositional view of architecture and its context through experimental means.
Copyright (c) 2025 Pablo Villalonga Munar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Integrating Data Analytics in Architectural Education: A Research Study on Mapping User Experience
In response to the significant transformation of knowledge, society, and culture brought about by digital capabilities, architects are increasingly focused on creating, preserving, and interpreting knowledge while utilizing computational methods to read user experiences. With the advancement of digital tools and data analytics platforms, we can effectively interpret and communicate complex data, analyze spatial relationships, reveal connections, and gain deeper insights into user experiences. By visualizing user experiences and relating our research to the networked information age, we can review existing research practices and provide new perspectives on experience, as well as alternative modes of knowledge production. As architecture continues to incorporate technology in design and analysis, engaging with data analytics has the potential to stimulate innovative pedagogical approaches in architectural education. This emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary learning and the integration of advanced digital tools and methodologies. Such a progressive approach fosters critical thinking and creativity, equipping future architects to address the complexities of contemporary society with data-driven insight. This proposed paper aims to explore the potential of data visualization in reading complex data, analyzing spatial relationships and patterns, revealing connections, and providing insights into research processes and outcomes. The research was conducted in an undergraduate architectural course that examined the user experience of an archaeological museum. This museum houses artifacts from various periods, each with its own material and cultural significance. The specific objectives of this study are to present a fresh perspective on the museum experience, uncover new relationships within the collection, and introduce a new layer of information based on user experience data. By situating this research within the context of the networked information age, it seeks to establish a global, trans-historical, and transmedia approach to knowledge and meaning-making. This research study aims to facilitate an exploration of both the visible and invisible aspects of a museum collection and its user experience by promoting comprehensive research on data visualization.
Copyright (c) 2025 Başak Uçar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Making Present the Invisible: Accounting for Synthesis and Integration in Final Design Thesis, Recognising the Complexity of our Practice
This paper considers apparent ambiguity between the ambition for our students to be able to synthesise and integrate withing their creative work, and the increasing pressure within professional accreditation to identify and measure core skills, knowledge and abilities through the testing of discrete and often disconnected element of competence. The paper considers how the demands for high levels of synthesis and integration between the parameters of design, technology, theory and professional practice expected within the Masters Final Design Thesis can mask the range of fundamental considerations and design challenges engaged with and responded to, the complexity of the task chosen and the degree of dificulty overcome to realise this. The paper also considers how we can ensure that students recognise their ability to integrate and synthesise at all levels within their work, and are conscious of and confident in this key criteria for operating successfully within the architectural profession, an ability distinct from the expectation on other graduates and other disciplines.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sally Stewart https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0