Excited to present our new working group: the Full Circle Collaborative! Along with friends and collaborators Clarisse Labro and Markus Berger we will be working in Eleonas to discover how the re- prefix can enhance creativity and encourage models of social cooperation. For more information please visit our blog and/or our Facebook page!
I am so delighted to have been part of this book my dear friend and collaborator Christos P. Kakalis has edited so beautifully. The chapter we co-authored (Chapter 7), discusses silence in architectural education. I hope you’ll like it as I am very proud of this work and the people who made this happen.Thank you Christos for trusting me with this!
This book explores the role of silence in how we design, present and experience architecture. Grounded in phenomenological theory, the book builds on historical, theoretical and practical approaches to examine silence as a methodological tool of architectural research and unravel the experiential qualities of the design process.
Distinct from an entirely soundless experience, silence is proposed as a material condition organically incorporated into the built and natural landscape. Kakalis argues that, either human or atmospheric, silence is a condition of waiting for a sound to be born or a new spatio-temporal event to emerge. In silence, therefore, we are attentive and attuned to the atmosphere of a place. The book unpacks a series of stories of silence in religious topographies, urban landscapes, film and theatre productions and architectural education with contributed chapters and interviews with Jeff Malpas and Alberto Pérez-Gómez.
Aimed at postgraduate students, scholars and researchers in architectural theory, it shows how performative and atmospheric qualities of silence can build a new understanding of architectural experience.
Re
conceptualizing the role of tutors in research-based pedagogy: the tutor(s) as
the curriculum
The paper presents
the efforts made to experiment with the pedagogical framework and the
operational model of a postgraduate urban design studio based on the
reconceptualization of the role of tutors. In the model examined here, the
curriculum was devised as an open and evolving network of the tutors’ resources
and affiliated researchers from within or outside the setting of the academy.
This mosaic consisted of different individual research and design practices
that are problem-focused and context-specific, communicated directly to
students by the very people responsible for their conception and development.
Learners were required to investigate the instrumentality of these practices
according to their own personal pursuits; to make their own networks of connections,
and were even encouraged to create their own personal schemata of design
research. In fact, the second major shift of the rethink lay in recognizing
learner autonomy and diversity, thus establishing a new operational framework
for the two to prosper. An amalgam of interconnected learning spaces provided
the conditions necessary for all these networks to co-exist and interact. The
paper describes the different aspects of the tutors’ involvement and
contributions in the design and implementation of this model, as they assumed a
number of roles, but most importantly, as they became learners themselves.
This thesis draws from current learning theories and pedagogical approaches to determine whether architectural education can benefit from online learning practices. The author examines the latest developments in the understanding of knowledge creation and how adopting new learning tools and practices impacts the learners, with particular focus in architectural studies.
How has the learning process evolved and what are the tools available for the production of knowledge? What is the profile of today’s learners? Has the role of teachers been affected? What happens when technology allows individuals to establish an online presence and seek the resources and information they need on their own and/or interact with other individuals? Could this development produce alternative educational models for architectural studies? And if so, what might these be? And what would be the consequences for those involved in the process?
Theoretical research covers three main areas; the first uncovers the complex landscape of the predominant learning theories -and to a certain degree-, the latest key shifts in the epistemology of knowledge. The second examines contemporary pedagogical approaches and monitors the changes in the perception of what constitutes a curriculum. The third area investigates traditional architectural education formats and how these have evolved over the years with the use of ICT technology. Finally, considering that the applied research involved mainly design studio courses, the theoretical research also monitors the changing nature of the relation between design and research.
Applied research was originally tested on a postgraduate urban research course. In the following years, however, it expanded to five urban design studios implemented both at postgraduate and undergraduate programs. Six different case studies are presented in total. The thesis describes the design of two basic course models based on blended and networked learning principles and their two subsequent variations introduced in the following years with the addition of new learning environments and networking tools.
A large part of the applied research examines the data retrieved from learning analytics and the systematic monitoring of the courses that describe the quantity and quality of learner attendance; the different taxonomies of interactivity between those involved in the learning process; the changes in the curriculum; the formal and informal activities that were developed; the multiple learning spaces the models accommodated and also the process of making meaning in this new setting.
The last section of the thesis presents the overall benefits of blended and networked learning in architectural education and how thinking in terms of open pedagogy can facilitate the design of design courses, culminating in the description of a new type of design course, hereby called Cooperative Studio.
This Thursday Prof. Nelly Marda (my phd supervisor; collaborator and dear friend) will be presenting our paper entitled: “The networked studio: first cooperation, then design” at the aae2019 conference on learning through practice. The conference will be held at the University of Westminster in London on 24-26 April, 2019.
I am delighted that my paper entitled “Re conceptualizing the role of tutors in research-based pedagogy: the tutor(s) as the curriculum” has been accepted for presentation.
This is a twofold graph I made up while working on my thesis to make sense of what I was reading and to handle receiving information as a consistent whole. On a first level, the graph represents the three main fields of my research: a. learning theories and the epistemology of knowledge (blue), b. contemporary pedagogy (green) and c. architectural education and design methodology (magenta). Each one of these fields manifests through a different set of entities, while the lines connecting them represent my interpretation on how i think they interrelate.
However, the graph also represents the most relevant entities to my applied research and the educational models I devised and experimented with in for the past five years. The thicker the lines, the more influential these entities have been to the models I made.
I meant this to be an open tool for use and reflection so, anyone interested can play with it and -why not?- change it. I made this graph on caccoo and I think that you can use it for free for up to 5 graphs. When you click on a term, you can also access to a short ppt file that describes it. So far these files have been elaborated in Greek, but in time I will translate and upload their English versions.
H. Chang: Stakeholder workshops as a pedagogy for experiential learning in collaborative planning education: An action research at the Department of Urban Planning, NCKU, Taiwan (photo credits: me)
This was perhaps one of the most interesting conferences I have ever attended. I followed the track of education since day 01 and I was amazed by the high levels of participation and engagement until the end. I met a lot of interesting people and I am very pleased to have worked with them, shared my thoughts with them and discussed with them on the future of urban planning education.
I was very excited to have been able to gain some relevance compared to what we have been doing, especially on transdisciplinary learning. The Round table on Friday was a great experience for me. I think that all of us present agreed on being advocates of collaborative practices, social inclusion and cultural empathy as basic prerequisites for co-creation in urban planning and planning education.
Round table brainstorming on the competencies of the future urban planners (photo credits: R. Rocco)
connecting data to information to knowledge 