archiTECTONICS: Pre- and Trans-Disciplinary Reference in Beginning Design

This presentation was part of the session : Pedagogy: Procedures, Scaffolds, Strategies, Tactics24th National Conference on the Beginning Design StudentPedagogical approaches to beginning design in architecture often assume trans-disciplinary modes of exploration to filter problem parameters and sculpt perceptual outlook for iterative potential. A closer look suggests moments within the architectural design process that come before, or around, the discipline itself in the form of other disciplines accompanied by basic principles, such as Visual Literacy. Iterating and perceiving through every disciplinary dynamic, instance, and/or action in the process of designing transcends, builds, and structures its neighbor for explorative sequencing, intention, and growth of sensibilities in design resolution. An acute awareness of disciplinary state, in a maturing design process, can alleviate obscurity of ideological foundation and facilitate growth for trans-disciplinary thinking, making, and communicating in a root discipline such as architecture. How can beginning design instructors guide young designers to keep ideas and concepts for design in focus, recognizing that root disciplines transcend pre- and trans-disciplinary processes? Does recognizing variation in pace, induced by digital and analog tools, and intention of design iteration, by discipline, instill clarity by pre-disciplinary thinking, perception, and operation? Trans-disciplinary exercise provokes awareness of pre-disciplinary foundations furthering possibilities for unique root-disciplinary understandings and results. The developed exercise, archiTECTONIC, recognizes and cycles through reasoning, conceptualization, and iteration in a trans-disciplinary sequence, allowing the beginning design student to recognize pre-disciplinary ideology, pace, and purpose when processing ideas through fundamentals of architectural design. Engaging this as a strategy for seeing, thinking, and maneuvering through a dynamic process provides design liberty and clarity for processing and communicating in a root discipline, in this case architecture

The Search for a New Pre-Disciplinary, Trans-Disciplinary Core

This presentation was part of the session : Pre-, Trans-, Cross-, Multi-Disciplinary24th National Conference on the Beginning Design StudentSix years ago, Idaho's Dept. of Architecture began to question the relevance of its art based beginning design foundation. As one of a few programs tied to a broader college art core, our faculty was beginning to question whether this pre-disciplinary core was essential to the education of an architect. While this debate was in progress, the university upper administration in the grips of the post 9/11 financial crisis decided to eliminate our poorly funded College of Art and Architecture which merged into a much larger College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. Then came the tipping point...it was announced that the Fine Arts Program would be eliminated from the university. Unanimous protest erupted from the architecture faculty and alumni as well as other prominent artists and citizens within the state. One of the more interesting members of this group of architecture alums is surprisingly not an architect, but a construction manager, (Jack Lemley) who took charge of the lagging construction effort of the English Chunnel and most recently, the rescue of Boston's Big Dig. After two years of organized protest, the Idaho State Board of Education restored the College of Art and Architecture which has resulted in a re-invigoration and confidence in art and the need for an all college interdisciplinary core shared between Art, Landscape Architecture, Virtual Technology Design, Architecture and Interior Design. The college is now in the process of re-thinking the core art curriculum with high hopes of establishing a curriculum that will unite the college's knowledge silos and create a student who is not afraid to cross disciplines when tackling a problem. This paper challenges the notion that one must be introduced immediately into a specialized discipline. In an age when it is comfortable to slip into the familiar surroundings of knowledge silos, we are at a time when flexible interdisciplinary thinking is highly encouraged with-in academia and the outside world. This paper asserts that a pre-disciplinary core is necessary in order to be interdisciplinary and transdiciplinary. Like our biological blastema cells whose DNA awaits the last bit of instruction to form into either a fingernail, or a brain neuron, our students need a flexible core of knowledge that can be utilized across disciplines. At a time when global warming could narrow our architectural education towards efficient linear engineering curriculums, we need a strong counterbalance of humanities and art to challenge and expand our students' thinking. This paper will reflect on the second year of progress from our College's Foundation Committee with its debates, alternatives, political struggles and logistical challenges. It is hoped that interested parties from the Beginning Design Conference will contribute to the re-thinking of our new core and the inevitable debates that will follow