A Comparative Study Of Architectural Design Studio Teaching

The study of architecture is a very specific intersection of engineering and artistic expression, thinking and feeling. Architecture belongs to the oldest professions in the cultural human history. Architectural education and training has progressed from the prevalent forms of apprenticeship to the forms of studio-based tutorial learning. Design Studio teaching is a simulation of design practice, with designer/client interactions over actual projects. Today, there are many schools that give architecture education all over the world, each one has its own curriculum and educational style, but there are still many similarities since the main aim of all of these educational settings is to teach design theory and how to design. Recent reports emphasize the need to re-evaluate educational approaches and programs in response to significant changes in socio-economic and technology conditions; a scale and quality of change, which demand new approaches and improve their programs in architectural education.The design studio lies at the core of architectural education. In architecture schools, studio courses command the most credit hours, the largest workloads, the most intensive time commitment from educators and students, and supreme importance. Studio courses are intended as the point of integration for all other coursework and educational experiences. In the 21st century the‘design studio’continues to have a powerful influence on the creation of environments for teaching and learning in art and design. In a design studio, students learn through a direct involvement in design projects and by socially interacting with other students and their tutors. The model of studio teaching as a community of experts and novices has been proved particularly effective for developing sensitivities to those classic but fugitive elements of design education such as problem finding and problem solving, teamwork, sensitivity to market opportunities,‘eye’for detail and the ability to generate innovation. Indeed, one of the main reasons of the success of studio teaching in design education is often attributed to its social nature. But actually, the literature on architectural education corroborates that there are some fundamental disagreements over what is meant by architecture and design. This in essence conveys that teaching architectural design means different things to different people; each educator teaches according to his/her own set of ideologies and beliefs and in a manner that is distinct from others. Concomitantly, there is a tremendous diversity of contents, areas of emphasis, and methods of teaching in different schools and even within one school. Also, there are many literatures reviewing the programs of architecture education and design studio to convoy the development of the world fields.This study aims to explore and investigate the design studio and its teaching aspects in general; then a case study on Chongqing University (China) and Mosul University (Iraq) architecture design studio teaching models was conducted to evaluate their programs, compare them, point out their strengthens and weakness, then propose ideas to improve their curriculums to suit with the developments of the world. This will also help in exchanging experiences between the two universities.Five main conclusions have been drawn. The first conclusion is with regard to the theory framework of thesis, the second conclusion is with regard to the architectural design studio, and the third conclusion is related with teaching at the Architectural Design Studio, the fourth conclusion is related with teaching studio scenario, the fifth conclusion is related with the effectiveness of studio teaching practice.Thus, findings from this study show that the architectural design is the center of architectural education both in Chongqing (China) and Mosul (Iraq) Universities, and has great importance compared with other lessons. The method of teaching students architecture design in design studio is based on resolving design problems (Problem Finding and Solving). But the difference lies in the teaching model of each of these universities. Chongqing University deliberates on the analogy model in teaching, to achieve the sustainable architecture, while, the teaching of Mosul University is based on a hidden curriculum model. So the detailed goals and the model of teaching design in architectural design studio at both these universities are different.There are deficiencies in several aspects in the teaching design studio at both of the two universities. Firstly the presentation in the lecture given by the teacher before starting the project, such as on the aim of the design project, the way to make the design concept and the application of the design concept in the project, was not sufficient. Secondly, the teachers often did not give the students enough opportunity to express their own way and concepts in design, nor did they weigh properly how long they should give to the students to complete the design project. In addition, they also lack in explaining how students could get the beneficial knowledge from the architectural literature and how they can apply this knowledge through design process.On the other hand, there are also positive aspects in the teaching design studio of these two universities. Such as, the teaching is mainly focused on the process of design project rather than only the quality of it, which enhanced the students’active participation in this kind of learning. In addition, the students were provided with the cooperation activities in learning, for example, the tutor divides students into small groups without looking for the design ability of students, and this is a good way to improve the ability of poor students. And most of the teachers (all of them are full time teacher) supervising the architectural design studio are also practitioners at the same time, who can combine the academic work and their own professional experiences. This has positive effects on the development of the academic education of students.The findings from this study also show that, on the one hand, the best way for the design drawing is combination of the hand drawing and the computer drawing, because each of these tools play an important role during the stages of design process, except for the first academic year which is the foundation stage for student to learn hand drawing. On the other hand, the fundamental courses and technology based courses in both universities have a significant effect on supporting the student’s knowledge to increase their ability to solve design problems in architectural design studio.