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Design studios experienced an unprecedented contribution of technology when it came to organizing studios online, as imposed by COVID-19, which requires exploration of its impacts on the main metaphors of education, learning dimensions, and undoubtedly studio culture.

In order to explore the impacts on the key dimensions of learning, a careful investigation was carried out from organizational, instructional, and learner points of view. The investigation utilized thematic analysis of records of pedagogical actions, as well as online communications, performance, and questionnaire responses of students to infer the conclusions. The freshmen architecture students were found to be an important group for study since they had no previous experiences in on-site design studios and will continue their education based on their first-year experiences.

Exploration of indicators—including reflective dialogue, retention, transfer of learned information to decisions, processing feedback as an investment in future performance, and self-regulation—as major contributors to design learning revealed that first-year students exhibited strong presence and interaction during online studio, and students' individuality influenced the teaching environment in terms of content and process. Hence, sense of belonging, which is a revamped feature of authentic context and studio culture, expands toward fortification of bottom-up educational frontiers.

Developing pedagogies with no concern for the unprecedented impacts of the transformative role of technology on fundamental layers of design education will adversely influence students' chances of personal and professional success. The findings in this paper, regarding the transformational impacts of technology on design studio culture, follow investigation of the direction it has led current and can lead future design education. The study provides unique support for crystalizing new teaching and learning opportunities and pedagogical developments.

Learning is an internalization process that depends on individual components. This study focuses on the problematic of learning in architectural design education process and examines its components. The relationship between learning and perception and how it can be handled in the architectural environment is discussed. Answers are searched on the axis of “individual, experience, perception” and especially is focused the concept of “filtering”. The learning environment in the architectural design studio is seen as a cultural environment where all actors share their experiences. It is thought that these variables should be brought to the forefront in order not to lose the originality, with so many variables connected with these cultural actors. In this context, it is aimed to examine the relation between filtering and authenticity in the process of debating the problem of learning in working. The discussion was conducted through a blended learning environment that is supposed to support the aforementioned relationship.

The study is based on the constructing grounded theory as a qualitative research pattern. The dynamic structure that can be empowered by the field experience of the selected research pattern has been a driving force in the study. Temporary hypotheses were identified with the preliminary problems and conceptual samples that were expected to be discussed, and then an experience environment was created that could generate data for the study. Then an experience environment was created that could generate data for the work. The implications of the observations, the open-ended questionnaires and the process of making the interviews were evaluated by descriptive analysis. With this approach, problems can be observed on an individual basis; and some of the problems that were grounded were brought into questionable positions with the architectural design studio.

The paper describes how, in the first few weeks of each semester, the architecture students and faculty at Philadelphia University participate in a Survivor Competition. Inspired by the campy show where contestants battle the elements and each other for a million dollars, Survivor Studio pits teams of design students and faculty against each other to accumulate points in a variety of physical, intellectual and design challenges. Geared towards heightening the students’ respect for natural systems, understanding of indigenous cultures and the poetic potential for sustainable technologies, the challenges attempt to develop relationships with the students’ non‐design studio curriculum. This included a game show on the history of architecture, the reading and interpretation of a novel called Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit, and a research documentation project focused on sustainable architecture and technologies developed by indigenous cultures. Physical challenges included scavenger hunts around campus that highlighted strategy, teamwork and knowledge/sensitivity to local environments. The main challenge for the students was to design a small community that could sustain the team without food or power or any supplies for one year. It elaborates on the ideas, pedagogical concepts, teaching strategies and eventual results of the Survivor Studio as a vehicle for exploring new and innovative ways to activate students’ imagination, energy and innate knowledge about sustainable design.

The study investigates the effectiveness of an adaptive reflective framework that shifts the learning process toward a student-centered approach within an interdisciplinary learning environment. It aims to promote the learning process within an interdisciplinary learning environment that could promote the students’ design competencies.

The experiment was conducted at Basic Design studio, investigating three concepts of basic design principles: harmony, repetition and rhythm. A total of 80 first-year architectural students were enrolled in this study and placed into two equal groups: the “control group” received the traditional learning method and in contrast, the “experimental group” received an interdisciplinary reflective learning method using music as a relevant discipline.

The results showed that utilizing “Music Animation Machine” in the learning process significantly promoted students’ cognitive skills, engagement and design competencies. In addition, there was obvious evidence of excellent progress in learning basic design principles using the proposed reflective approach within a student-centered learning environment.

Many researchers focus on the importance of using music as a design tool. However, there is a crucial demand for investigating it as a learning tool. This research raised music effectiveness in the learning process of design principles. Thus, it incites to test more disciplines interconnected with architectural design. Other researchers could utilize this approach to ensure its effect on enhancing design competencies in the basic design and other architectural design courses.

This paper describes the curriculum design of an architectural studio course aimed at making concepts of sustainability accessible, understandable and practicable to second-year undergraduate students. Architectural education and design pedagogy is shaped and interrogated in the Global North or Western Europe and North America and influences various pedagogical approaches in the Global South. By including exemplars, voices and practices from global, historical, vernacular and contemporary contexts, understanding of sustainability is enriched.

The approach to course design included decolonising the curriculum and making it relevant for globally diverse future professionals. The studio theme of “memory and history” was framed as responsiveness to context and experiencing the site. Students were required to define place, and articulate form and space with sensitivity towards social, cultural, environmental and ecological aspects. The lectures, exercises and interactive activities emphasised design process, in-progress work, and experimentation through sketching, diagramming, drawing, and making study models which scaffolded student learning under the guidance of tutors.

The findings show that to make the process of learning to design in an environmentally responsive manner explicit for students, approaches to curriculum design must have a global and inclusive curriculum, engage students in experiential learning through doing/making to develop critical thinking skills, encourage students to synthesise and transfer learning to and from other settings and contexts, and interpret knowledge-power relationships and co-construction processes embedded in studio-based teaching and learning.

The original contribution of the course is that it creates an inclusive, experimental and decolonised space for co-construction of knowledge about designing sustainable environments.

Traditional architectural curricula have been based on the design studio model, which emphasizes learning by doing. Under this model, a typical architectural curriculum offers a sequence of design studios in which students learn to design by actually engaging in designing. Until very recently the design studio culture remained largely unchanged. The introduction of the virtual design studio and the paperless studio in early 1990s has resulted in fundamental changes in design studio pedagogy. The paper examines the impact of computers and information technology, as applied in the paperless studio and the virtual design studio, on design studio education. Based on literature reviews on paperless studio and virtual design studio and examination of architectural studio instruction, including several experiences in conducting paperless studios, the author considers the pedagogical shift occurring in design studio instruction as a result of integrating digital media in the design studio. The paper considers two types of transformations in studio instruction: pedagogical transformations related to using digital media as a design tool and pedagogical transformations related to distributing the design studio with some or all participants in remote locations.

As is well known, architectural design pedagogy persistently demands to look outside the classroom for real-world problems to deal with, and exemplary solutions to learn from. Studio-based learning alternately takes place between indoor and outdoor environments as well as built and natural environments. Especially the use of outdoor workspaces where students may generate and test their design proposals strengthens the case for a better understanding of human habitability and environmental sustainability. Nonetheless, outdoor activities are traditionally confined to on-site information gathering, whereas design and evaluation processes are carried out indoors simply as a desk-bound activity. In these cases, the empirical evidence to back up the problem modeling and the design decisions made inside the studio classroom is missing. In mainstream architecture education, indoor and outdoor learning experiences are operationally dissociated. The intent to create real outdoor studio classrooms not only opens a new research field in learning space design, but new challenges to the studio-based learning culture. We expose a few exemplary cases from an ongoing series of trials, started in 1999 by the Department of Architecture at the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, to assess the effective integration of outdoor learning environments with our local studio-based learning culture.

This paper aims to examine the barriers to adopting collaboration in architectural design studios from the instructors' perspectives and explore strategies to overcome barriers.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 coordinators in architecture and interior architecture design studios to gather insights into their experiences and perspectives on collaboration. Thematic analysis was employed to identify key themes and patterns in the data.

The study reveals that collaboration is highly valued by instructors for its potential to enhance creativity, problem-solving abilities, and preparation skills among students. However, the study identified several barriers, such as student conflicts, coordination challenges, cultural differences, and technological constraints.

The instructors recommended specific strategies to promote collaboration in architectural design studios. These strategies include involving students in collaborative projects, providing training in collaboration skills, striking a balance between online and in-person activities, and developing supportive policies and skills. Implementing these strategies can help design programmemes that prepare students for professional success and future careers.

This study sheds light on the importance of integrating collaboration skills in architectural education. By exploring barriers and suggesting strategies, it provides valuable insights for educators and encourages further research into the implementation of these strategies. Design programmes can benefit from adopting a multifaceted approach to foster collaboration among students, thereby enhancing their learning experience and future prospects.