Design studios are usually centered around a ‘design project’ in which aspects of site and program context have a larger bearing on design decisions. In practice, however, the ideology and structure of the office has an equal impact on design decisions. This studio attempted to address the impact of aspects of practice on design. In the first half of the studio, students designed their architectural practice based on book readings, personal reflections, an experimental collaborative project and visits to 15 architectural practices. In the second half, students attempted two projects simultaneously. The first project was proposed by the student as a ‘dream’ project for their practice. And the second project was given by the tutor who enacted the role of the client. The studio culminated with the students designing a website of their practice. This studio provided a platform to critically examine the role of architectural practice on architectural design decisions and the architect themselves. The projects served as a means to arrive at design processes that aid in translating a vision [ideology] into reality [building] that the practice would uphold. The studio was a unique opportunity to purview varied kinds of practices, reflect, brainstorm, and present ideas on how practice affects the architecture produced and the architect themselves.
Each student produced a website of their practice as the final output. head over to https://www.thepracticecept.com/ or click the link additional work on the right panel to deep dive into this studio and view the websites of individual practices.
Designing a building was not the focus of this studio! Students designed 3 projects; but rather than discussing design, we discussed how to delegate design responsibility, how to design a design process for a given architectural ideology, and how clients affect the design process.
the studio was structured in 2 parts- activities in the first half helped students arrive at an ideology for their practice. Projects in the second half helped students understand the impact of ideology on design processes.
We had book readings, visited 15 varied architectural practices, and conducted a collaborative roleplay design experiment.
You can see this in more detail at https://www.thepracticecept.com/
Students arrived at a position statement, articulating their architectural values in the absence of a project. This, then formed the basis of the projects in the second half of the studio
In the second half of the studio, students designed 2 projects- a dream project initiated by the student, and a common project for the entire class- a doctors clinic and nursing home where the tutor played the client. The discussions primarily focused on whether the design process was helping manifest the position
