Computer-stimulated design: construction of a personal repertoire from scattered fragments

This paper describes some possibilities of creating and structuring a personal digital memory capable of facilitating architectural design and design learning. The raw materials of this memory are different representations that can be found on the Web. Having interpreted these representations, one is able to construct a meaningful memory, educated and personal, which can be called upon subsequently during the design phase, as long as one has a medium that can represent this memory and put it to good use. As a practical, effective application of this process, we will describe part of a configuration geared towards the learning of architectural design. This configuration is composed of various elements, precisely arranged in space and time in a set of interrelations and interactions. The design student is placed at the centre of the arrangement, from where he or she can call on a broad spectrum of possibilities from the Web as provider of image documents. When necessary, students can use specially developed software that allows them a verbal and pictorial interpretation stimulated during particular phases of the learning process. In this way, through pictorial material presented on the network, the students can build up a digital library appropriate to their own understanding of architecture and their own representation of the world. At this point, they can abandon the universe of digital documents and media and return to the world of materials and shapes in intensive design studio sessions, where slowly maturing ideas can at last find concrete form. Thus, we deal with the relationship between the public, shareable aspect of the documents, and the private aspect: the individual interpretation of these documents. In the same way, we show how, within the framework of the teaching programme that has been set up, and without interference, this relationship between public and private can be linked into a dimension of the work of learning which is at times personal, at times collective. The conclusion attempts to outline the issues raised by this sort of configuration, and to show how thoughtful use of computers and networks can stimulate and enrich design rather than just “aid” it, as is generally accepted.

Architectural Design Education and Digital Technologies: Toward a Multinational Research Observatory

New visions that do not confine the computer to strictly technical and representation functions have appeared in schools of architecture over the past few years. The use of new information and communication technologies (NICT), in the field of design education in particular, have allowed the creation of innovative teaching tools and teaching configurations that are operational in certain European and North American schools. Unfortunately, the comparison of experiences is rare, and it would be beneficial to facilitate educational exchanges on a scientific basis. It is clear, now, that the general use of NICT will have to promote educational programs that are evaluated scientifically, that are “efficient” and that are occasionally multinational, even if the cultural differences make the task difficult. These considerations have lead us to the proposal of recommendations for the creation of a multinational observatory for the teaching of design that could benefit from the presence of researchers from European countries and from North America already implicated in activities in our laboratories. This observatory is conceived as a depository of pedagogical works serving as observation material destined for scientific research. As such, it would act as an observation site for research in didactics of design. It would allow for a new understanding of the opportunities and limitations derived from the emerging globalisation of distributed design education and offer new challenges for architectural schools. This article describes the beginnings of this observation system and underscores its potential to produce results in the future

Virtual Architecture as Representation for Creative Design Process - Through a Collaborative eDesign Studio

Using Virtual Architecture (VA) as a general scheme for representations to sustain the reflection activities involved in the design process can help students to initiate creative design ideas. Because of its implicit abstract nature, VA can be used, to represent original ideas or processes, or well-known architectural theories to articulate design ideas. Furthermore, VA as a mean of expression, turn out to be a source of inspiration for students who perceive it as medium with very few limits with which to develop, explore and express their design intuitions. A recent collaborative edesign studio experience is reported to illustrate the benefit observed. Using three examples out of ten student projects, we show how designs and design process have been characterized by those virtual representations. In fall semester 2004, the edesign studio took place between the Schools of Architecture of Toulouse and Université Laval in Québec. VA was both an academic and a studio topic at Laval while the other school students had a traditional design task to tackle, namely the rehabilitation of Chapou University Residences for students in Toulouse. Students from both schools composed each edesign team. In addition, three common architectural themes were web-documented and introduced to both classes: room, as defined by Louis Kahn: “a space which knows what it wants to be is a room”, color, as an architectural medium in dialectic with structure, and body-space relationships, as articulated by Gilles Deleuze and its projection to cyberspace. From the edesign studio results, we are arguing that virtual architecture should be looked at not only as new domain to be investigated by architects and taught in academic studios but also as a new medium of design to develop and explore design intuitions through virtual representations

Dire la blancheur chez les Businenge(e) en Guyane : pratiques de catégorisation et racialisation des rapports sociaux

International audienceThis article investigates ethnoracial categorizations designating the majority in a minority language and their uses and meanings in everyday interactions to grasp the dynamics of racialization from the perspective of minorized people. The investigation focuses on the varieties of the language called Businenge Tongo locally or Eastern Maroon Creoles spoken by Maroon populations resident in French Guiana and Surinam.We first examine the different terms used to refer to whiteness such as bakaa, weti and poyte from a historical perspective on the basis of historical documents, before examining their uses in contemporary conversational recordings. The analysis in the final part focuses on interactions at the hospital of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. It combines two approaches: the sociology of social relations and social approaches to language rooted in ethnography. The distinction between bakaa and weti makes it possible to imagine race as a power relation, where the evidence of the biological marker of color disappears. Naming whiteness is also a way of providing a critical perspective of the social order.Cet article vise à analyser des catégorisations de la majorité raciale dans une langue minoritaire, afin de saisir ces dynamiques de racialisation depuis la perspective de personnes minorisées. Il s’agit de catégories utilisées en Guyane par des personnes businenge – des Marrons –, locuteurs des variétés de nenge.Nous étudions ainsi les désignations renvoyant à la blancheur, comme bakaa, weti et poyte, dans une perspective historique, à partir de dictionnaires anciens, puis contemporaine, en nous appuyant sur des données collectées ethnographiquement. Puis nous analysons des interactions à l’hôpital de Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, en combinant la sociologie des rapports sociaux et des approches sociales du langage ancrées dans l’ethnographie.La distinction entre bakaa et weti permet de penser la race comme rapport de pouvoir, où disparaît l’évidence du marqueur biologique de couleur. Nommer la blancheur s’avère aussi un moyen de proposer une perspective critique de l’ordre social

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International audienc

Die digitale Vorlesung zur Steigerung der Effektivität und Effizienz des Lernens in Großgruppen

Die Anzahl der Studierenden an deutschen Hochschulen ist in den letzten 10 Jahren um fast 70% gestiegen. So stehen Lehrende an Hochschulen vermehrt dem Problem gegenüber, die Lernumgebung für eine möglichst große Anzahl an Studierenden effektiv und effizient zu gestalten. Im Rahmen eines Innovationsprogrammes für gute Lehre an der Technischen Universität Braunschweig wurde ein neues Lehrkonzept in der Vorlesung Finanzierungstheorie des Instituts für Finanzwirtschaft, basierend auf der „Inverted Classroo“-Methode, implementiert. Ziel dieses Beitrages ist die Erörterung der Frage, ob dieses Lehrkonzept zu einer Steigerung der Effektivität und Effizienz des Lernens in Großgruppen führen kann. (DIPF/Orig.