Studio Matters draws together experts in design education to discuss and critique research and practice in studio pedagogy through three conversation events will and a two day symposium.
Event dates
22 Jul 2020 – Questions
14 Oct 2020 – Properties
09 Dec 2020 – Definitions
9-10 Feb 2021 – Symposium
Links
22 July event:
Link to Google Form
“The reader looking here for a template or guide book on studio teaching will be disappointed – by intent. There is no single, generalizable set of guidelines that we can, or want to, offer.”
(Boling and Schwier, 2016, p. 20)
The studio remains central to design education as a shared place, practice and even concept. And yet it persists as an ill-defined entity: a complex puzzle composed of thousands of diverse jigsaw parts constructed by teachers and students, with no definitive list of pieces.
At least in part, this is deliberate: the freedom afforded in studio learning leads to student designers able to engage in creative thinking, materiality and practice. But this should not prevent attempts to construct knowledge of the pieces of the puzzle, recognising that the inquiry in itself is a useful mode of knowledge production.
Historically, studies have explored the parts of the puzzle: what a studio consists of, in terms of space, curriculum, time, resources, pedagogy and tried to examine its definitions, concepts, ideas and overlaps (Schön 1987; Cuf 1992; Shulman 2005; Salama 2017). More recent research engages further with the puzzle itself, whether this is: outlining the necessity of contradictions and ambiguity (e.g. Orr and Shreeve 2018; Boling and Schwier 2016); or exploring studio as a socio- material complex and praxis (e.g. Farïas and Wilkie 2016; McDonald and Michela 2019).
Given this background, it’s opportune to review the ‘state of play’, both in terms of what is being researched, and the quality of that research itself. Studio Matters will bring together thinkers to explore these issues.
Distance Design Education 