CoA/CAADRIA Roundtable

Digital Media – New Imperatives for Architectural Education

14 May 2005, CAADRIA conference, Delhi, April 2005

Bharat Dave <b.dave at unimelb dot edu dot au>

1. Introduction

The roundtable discussion on integration of digital media in architectural studies was initiated in response to request by Council of Architecture (India). The initial discussion on this theme began via email to selected educators and practitioners in India and around the world. It invited responses to key questions faced by institutions considering integration of IT in architectural curriculum. The questions posed and responses received are attached at the end of this report (Section 4). Additional relevant material from around the world representing similar discussion from USA, Europe and Latin America is attached in Section 5.

2. Summary of roundtable discussion

Following the receipt of email responses, a wide ranging discussion on integration of digital media in architecture education programs took place as part of the CAADRIA conference roundtable. The roundtable included a number of delegates from many parts of the world and was attended by both young and highly experienced academics and practitioners. Rather than generating a singular position, the roundtable was aimed at identifying most significant choices to be faced while integrating digital media in architectural education.

The following key guiding principles emerged from this discussion.

• Countries and institutions that are relatively late starters in integrating IT in architectural education should aim to leapfrog developments elsewhere.
• Curricula should aim to go beyond imparting skills in specific software to new ways of thinking about architectural design.
• Do not develop curricula around specific software packages. Instead aim to build them around design staff knowledgeable in appropriate use of IT in design.
• Use of IT in architectural education should be seen in the context of wider design curriculum. For example, IT integration in design education may enable ways to redesign and integrate a range of design-related subject materials in building construction, sustainability, building performance, etc.
• Instead of ‘teaching’ software packages, the underlying principles and reasoning in a given topic ought to be emphasized. For example, fundamental introduction to geometric operations and composition ought to take precedence over what given software ‘supports’ in terms of user functionality.
• As far as possible, adopt extensible software and introduce students how to develop software extensions using scripting and/or programming interfaces. The underlying motive is not to train designers as programmers but to allow them to question and go beyond ‘accepted’ norms imposed or introduced by software developers.
• Avoid separating IT-based subjects from other parts of design curriculum (at least in the undergraduate studies).
• Develop a culture of sharing both teaching and student resources and experiences across institutions so that not everyone needs to reinvent the wheel.
• With rapid changes and developments that occur in the field, it is essential to cultivate access to and participation in international literature and events in the field.
• Different institutions are likely to gravitate towards different visions. In a country such as India with a large number of institutions, the curricula may range from theory and research-centric schools on the one end to skills and application-centric schools on the other end, with many intermediate positions between these two poles.
• In light of the above, national policies should be careful about privileging any one position since they may have detrimental impacts on what otherwise may be pragmatic needs of the profession or society in a given context.
• IT integration may offer support for flexible, individual learning styles and needs. This may be especially relevant for continuing professional education modules.
• Encourage closer integration with professionb to benefit from practice-based innovations in use of IT in design that sometimes move at a much faster pace than what is possible within educational institutions.
• Good teachers are fundamental to the introduction of IT in design.
• Develop a program around beliefs and visions, not around technology.

3. Next steps

The above guiding principles are recommended to Council of Architecture (India) for development of future policies with regard to integration of digital media in architecture curricula at undergraduate and higher studies. The above principles do not offer prescriptive roadmaps for either specific curriculum structures or resources needed. To translate these principles in more definitive terms would be the next logical step forward for CoA (India).

4. Initial roundtable outline and responses received

The following message was sent to a small ground of educators and practitioners prior to the roundtable—

Initial roundtable outline by Bharat Dave

The responses received are attached in following—

5. Other relevant documents

The issues raised in this roundtable have been debated at other international research and teaching institutions around the world. The following three documents reflect views based on experiences in the USA, Europe and Latin America.

• Digital Technology and Architecture- White Paper, J. Bermudez and K. Klinger (eds.)
  ACADIA: http://www.acadia.org/ACADIA_whitepaper.pdf
  
• Roundtable session on “Theoretical and Experimental Issues in the Preliminary Stages of Learning/Teaching CAAD”, M. Earl, B. Martens and R. Oxman (chairs)
  eCAADe: http://cumincad.scix.net/data/works/att/d5a7.content.pdf
  
• Digital Design Curriculum – Developments in Latin America – a field report, A. Montagu, J. R. Kos, D. R. Barros, A. Stipech, A. G. Alvarado
  SigRaDi: http://cumincad.scix.net/data/works/att/2d5c.content.pdf