Abstract
Architectural studio courses are universally structured with the highest credit in the curricula that the student is expected to comprehend an existing urban fabric with its physical and social components in order to solve a specific design problem. Within this context, as the students develop their conceptual ideas, they are expected to assume probable interactions that are supposed to occur between the users and space. However, the students commonly face difficulties in embracing the topic through such an interdisciplinary approach and sometimes ignore the psychosocial dimension of space such as spatial perception, needs, privacy, satisfaction, etc. that affect the mutual interaction between space and users. Then, the resulting project is likely to be an output derived entirely from geometric principles overlooking the psychosocial characteristics of context. Thus, elective courses become essential in order to support the student’s interdisciplinary comprehension about space. A spatial perception and cognition course is such that the concept of space is not only introduced and presented through theoretical seminars, but also through experiential participation of the students themselves where they actively perform daily activities by the guidance of a blind, in a specially designed thematic environment with complete darkness equipped with scent, sound, wind, and tactile simulations of a specific urban setting. Upon completion of the experience, the students are invited to a drawing and discussion session that they firstly transfer their experiences on cognitive maps and later discuss the interaction between body and space in relation to senses and user needs.
Presenters
Nevset Gul CanakciogluAssist.Prof., Faculty of Architecture and DEsign, Ozyegin University, Turkey
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Architectural Studio, Design Education, Spatial Perception, Cognitive Mapping, Cognition
