Designing the interface between research, learning and teaching.

Abstract: This paper’s central argument is that teaching and research need to be reshaped so that they connect in a productive way. This will require actions at a whole range of levels, from the individual teacher to the national system and include the international communities of design scholars. To do this, we need to start at the level of the individual teacher and course team. This paper cites some examples of strategies that focus on what students do as learners and how teachers teach and design courses to enhance research-led teaching. The paper commences with an examination of the departmental context of (art and) design education. This is followed by an exploration of what is understood by research-led teaching and a further discussion of the dimensions of research-led teaching. It questions whether these dimensions are evident, and if so to what degree in design departments, programmes and courses. The discussion examines the features of research-led departments and asks if a department is not research-led in its approach to teaching, why it should consider changing strategies

Modeling the early stages of a user-centered process in architectural design through adaptation of the methodologies of New Product Design

In order to reach a degree of quality in architectural buildings that is likely to lead to user satisfaction, architectural design relies on integrating user-related information even before generation of building concepts. However, integrating such information may be seen as a hindrance to architectural creation. It therefore seems necessary to propose a methodological approach that allows integration of a user-centred point of view as well as generation of creative architectural concepts. Our research proposes to apply a collaborative process of New Product Design (NPD) in order to further enrich the traditional process of architectural design. We will present some experimental work carried out as part of an architectural project for the design of emergency shelters, as an alternative to more usual habitats. We will then discuss the possibility of adapting NPD methodology to architectural design, and what potential this offers to improve the integration of user-related information within architectural creativity

Framework for software architecture visualization assessment.

In order to assess software architecture visualisation strategies, we qualitatively characterize then construct an assessment framework with 7 key areas and 31 features. The framework is used for evaluation and comparison of various strategies from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Six existing software architecture visualisation tools and a seventh research tool were evaluated. All tools exhibited shortcomings when evaluated in the framework

Portmerion, Proportion and Perspective

The holiday village of Portmerion was created by Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (1883 1978) over a period of fifty-one years, starting in 1926. It was grade II listed in 1971. However, Portmerion has become a part of western popular culture rather than of mainstream architectural history. Its use as the setting for the cult 1967 television series “The Prisoner” ensures continued worldwide interest and a constant stream of visitors. Williams Ellis’ design methods were empirical, initial designs being adjusted by eye on site in close collaboration with trusted builders. This paper analyses the development of Portmerion as a gesamtkunstwerk; considering the experience of movement through the village as a dynamic composition of shifting vistas, focussing the visitor on a series of constructed views. Through this analysis, Portmerion is revealed as both a manifestation of the architecture of pleasure and an exercise in the pleasure of architecture

Urban Design Evolved: The Impact of Computational Tools and Data-Driven Approaches on Urban Design Practices and Civic Participation

In recent years, the changing pattern of human activities, increasing data regarding the spatial environment, and the possibility of collecting and processing this data allowed us to reconsider how we approach urban design, with a focus on a digital-oriented and data-driven perspective. In this study, we examine the evolution of urban design by analyzing the roles of designers and citizen empowerment. Our analysis includes a literature review and semi-structured interviews with computational design experts. In this sense, the literature is reviewed to investigate previous discussions and findings about the topic, and semi-structured interviews were carried out with seven computational design experts. The experts were selected by considering two criteria: (1) their experience with computational urban design subjects in practice and (2) their academic research background. This study concludes that technology-driven urban design solutions change designers' relationship with data, opening new avenues for objective, data-driven & data-informed decision-making. There are few differences between traditional and computational design practices regarding user empowerment and participatory design. Moreover, technology-driven urban design tools and methods are still in their early stages and are rarely used in actual projects

Critical Dialogues : Scotland + Venice 2012

Alberto Campo Baeza writing in the catalogue, Young Spanish Architecture, an Ark Monograph of 1985, talks about, ‘’a world riddled with noise and yet paradoxically mute, creatively speaking, a group of young Spanish architects are playing a very engaging song, their own song, the most beautiful song.’’ Twenty-seven years later that Spanish song has grown in quality and projection as subsequent architects took their lead from this earlier generation resulting in a Spanish architectural culture of great stature and depth. New voices are occasionally heard, often emanating from the architectural edge, such as Pascal Flammer and Raphael Zuber’s work in Switzerland and Alejandro Aravena’s Elemental Housing in Chile. Some of the most beautiful and poignant songs have emerged from China in Atelier Archmixing’s Twin Trees Pavilion and Amateur Architecture Studio’s early Ceramic House, projects that can be heard through the din of the architectural circus that travels the globe, a circus with an increasingly desperate and cynical appetite. For a song to become engaging and powerful, three components are critical: personality, passion and technique. Scotland’s presence in Venice 2012 is about the recognition of four voices that are on the verge of making themselves heard. Scotland lies on the periphery of Europe, nascent both politically and in contemporary terms architecturally. Yet once its architects stood shoulder to shoulder with the best in Europe and many claim that Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s sublime Glasgow School of Art 1899-1909 heralded modernism not just in the UK but also in Europe. In the post-Second World War period Gillespie Kidd and Coia in the West and Morris and Steedman in the East helped propel Scottish architecture in new directions, the former becoming part of a west coast figurative culture that explored a phenomenological sense of section and atmosphere, the latter by an east coast sense of abstraction, detachment and refinement. It seems to me there has always been this kind of architectural watershed that splits Scotland in two. The west possesses a character like its fractured romantic coastline that is passionate about layers, complexity and conversation, whilst the east with its more austere coastline nurtures a more ascetic, reflective, emotionless and silent quality in both its art and architecture. More recently the architectural scene seems to have lost this sense of split personality that came out of place. The new architecture has a tendency towards an image of rediscovered modernism albeit executed with a new graphic material suaveness that could equally be seen anywhere in the UK. The years from the 1970’s have seen a gradual dissolution in the architect’s role. It is a situation that has been greatly exacerbated by the current recession in which many architects have lost not just their voice, but their ability to make architecture altogether. The four architectural practices represented in Venice are all based in Glasgow; they all share a concern for people, the ordinary, and the street. They all have passion and an emerging personality even though their technique has had little opportunity to develop. The critical word that connects these architects is architectural practice. They explore the act of practicing as an architect in a marginal situation, politically, socially, professionally and culturally. Their approach is primarily concerned with conversation and engagement. Venice itself is a city on the edge. Once the edge of Europe and a portal to a far eastern imagination, a city barely founded on land or sea, a mirage. The Scottish contribution to the Venice Biennale itself is a marginal act, emerging, hopeful, outside the main event. Four Northern figures flit amongst southern shadows