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Journal of Engineering Research

Journal of Engineering Research

Abstract

The design studio presents a multifaceted challenge due to the absence of a direct teaching approach, relying heavily on the teacher's expertise, design acumen, and pace. Furthermore, much of the existing literature on design studio methods tends to be philosophical or opinion-based, lacking practical solutions for ongoing challenges in this domain. While it's easy for scholars to theorize, offering comprehensive procedures to address design studio issues proves considerably more difficult. There's no unanimous agreement on the topic; most design studio models are based on individual opinions as scholars and practitioners view the topic from different angles, developing their own perspectives. However, interpretations, opinions, suggestions, or theories attempting to address the drawbacks in teaching the design studio may not be helpful when architecture students struggle to develop their design skills. Recognizing the varying levels of intelligence and understanding among students as crucial factors influencing the design process and project quality, it becomes essential to devise a teaching method that provides a clear design sequence to mitigate flaws in the design studio. This paper aims to introduce a new and comprehensive design studio model calling it the "Slicing Method," a design studio teaching model that offers a systematic, gradual, and step-by-step design sequence. By implementing a clear and straightforward design sequence, this method ensures simplicity, consistency, and structure in the design process for students to follow. The "Slicing Method" emphasizes simplicity at each step, encouraging the creation of clear and uncluttered architectural spaces. It also ensures compliance with building codes and emergency evacuation protocols, distributes responsibilities and workload evenly among tutoring team members, and provides meticulous daily monitoring of students' design processes. Additionally, it incorporates three jury rehearsal simulations before the final project defense, enhancing students' confidence and presentation skills. This paper moves beyond most of the available worldwide design studio models that offer theoretical guidelines only, - by presenting a detailed description of the "Slicing Method," covering studio themes, design sequence, tutoring modes, defined workloads, project complexity and consistency across the undergraduate syllabus, rigorous progress follow-up systems, fair grading procedures, considerations for student’ grade improvement petitions, tutors' competence and attitude, and an effective jury system. The new method is tested and verified in two different studio environments, currently during the 2023-2024 academic year in a physical design studio, and during 2019-2020 Covid pandemic in an online environment with introducing extensive illustrated examples form the students’ work in both studios.

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