Abstract

The teaching and learning of management and professional practice in the creative disciplines such as architecture is filled with challenge. Many students come to class with strong preconceptions about management and struggle to find either interest or relevance in what they see as the antithesis of creativity. By institutional necessity, the delivery methods differ from their studio based, design and construction teaching which form the majority of the architectural degree. Building from the work of Schön and others, this research asks if an architectural/construction simulation can generate sufficient personal experience so as to generate interest and relevance as well as create a common foundation for teaching and learning. Disguised as a competition where students work in groups to construct a model, the students’ focus is shifted from the completed model to the processes and issues of getting the model constructed in a group effort. Using reflective techniques, students” individual personal experience is then plumbed during the next five weeks of the course to find the relevance of different aspects of management theory and practice to the generation of architecture.