Abstract

Emerging issues such as responsive, interactive, kinetic, dynamic and growing architecture are relatively new areas of focus in architectural design education. They collectively represent an interdisciplinary domain that helps produce metamorphic buildings where architectural configuration, internal anatomy and external morphology mutate throughout the building’s lifecycle. The skills needed to generate metamorphic designs must be enhanced by high imagination, creativity, technical knowledge, and by tools to communicate morphing compositions and their animated transformations. This domain does not only pose new challenging problems but also necessitates using technology applications to enhance the tedious manual production of various composition mutations. Within this context, a project is orchestrated to incorporate the concepts and skills of “Metamorphic Architecture” into the curriculum of the College of Architecture in Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST). The project focuses on the metamorphosis of external compositions as well as the varying interactions between the inhabitants and their internal environments based on the principles of anthropometrics and ergonomics. In addition, the project implementation maximizes the application of computer-aided learning tools to visualize, model, communicate and simulate emergent concepts in engineering design. The research design is mainly based on action research where a design framework is developed and implemented in real-life studio settings. The approach used in the framework development is based on the constructivist theory and problem-based learning principles to enhance the participants’ knowledge development while they apply the project. Findings and reflections of the project development and implementation are discussed. They seem to encourage the incorporation of the principles of metamorphic design and computer-aided learning applications into the architectural pedagogy plans as a solution for some critical situations, and as an intellectual exercise of innovation and cross-disciplinary networking.