Bridging Analog and Digital Realms: Fostering Sustainable Design Innovation Through Integrated Teaching Techniques

Abstract

Digital simulation tools for environmental performance analysis are widely employed in architectural practices around the world. For this reason, teaching students how to use those tools is increasingly becoming an important part of the architect’s education and future employability. However, in architectural design, digital tools, providing fixed numerical outputs, have the potential to lead to design fixations, limiting the students’ capacity for innovative thinking by restricting their design actions. This study suggests that digital tools can be used not only as tools for complex computational analysis in the architect’s practice but also as pedagogical tools facilitating the integration of numerical simulation outputs in holistic design processes, enhancing the learner’s experience. The study further infers that one method to accomplish this is by incorporating digital tools into hands-on activities and experiments. To test the hypothesis, we designed and tested an experimental workshop. Action research was chosen as a methodology, enabling the researchers to participate in ongoing situations, influencing the events while simultaneously being able to measure the impact of their interventions. All activities followed Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and Schenck & Cruickshank’s Co-constructed Developmental Teaching Theory. A set of digital and analog tools for simulating environmental performance was incorporated into the teaching and learning activities of the workshop. The juxtaposition of the different simulation capabilities of those tools aimed to provoke students to reflect and build a holistic understanding of the subtleties of simulation results. This article is the conclusion of the first workshop and summarizes the attempt to incorporate those tools into hands-on activities and experiments, encouraging students to test the boundaries of their design solutions on both quantitative and qualitative basis. The main discussion points are the methodology and methods employed in the first workshop and the agenda for improving the protocols for the next planned workshop.