MateriArt "Art and Science of Materiality in Architectural Design Education"

Tectonics/ways of doing/thinking of architecture, face technical, aesthetic and cultural implications of the emerging digital technologies, communication technologies, and new materialities. Architectural practices in all the fields of the discipline are thus in a reformation process.

Architectural education shall guarantee at least the acquisition of certain knowledge, skills, and competences as defined by Directive 2013/55/EU, in line with UIA-UNESCO Charter on Architectural Education. Architectural Design Studio is the spine/backbone of architectural design education. It is the place where all the knowledge, abilities, and skills gained via the other curricular courses are weaved into designing. It is a key interaction field that fosters the knowledge triangle of the discipline owing to the joint of work of tutors coming from research, academic and professional fields. Rather than being an environment for implementing and/or motivating projects or for instructing someone to carry them out, studio rely on student-centered approach strengthened with collaborative work, multidisciplinary approach, that directly improves the competence in innovative problem-solving.

Enriching and extending current practices/models of architectural design studio is a deliberate action. It holds a substantial innovation potential to enhance the relevance, quality, and impact of architectural design education/research in terms of handling the transformations in practices interacting with the discipline.

Over the last 15 years, apart from curricular compulsory studios, extracurricular international intensive studios in architectural design (ISAD) have become a mainstream educational environment around the globe. ISADs are time-wise, ranging from 15 days to 1 month long, fast to organize, and economical for international students to be part of a new education setting.

Within the scope of the exigencies of education field, this project foresees the potential of ISADs in:
1. Breeding an experimental/alternative/flexible learning and research environment in the 1st and 2nd cycles to absorb ever-changing tools/methods promoted in professional/research sides of the field;
2. Promoting the pedagogical update of studio tutors, including professional practitioners, with peer teaching method.
3. Enabling international collaboration between HEIs by transnational communication.

ISADs have the potential to become incubators for innovations in studio models.

Partners
Eindhoven University of Technology (the Netherlands)
TOBB University of Economics and Technology (TOBB ETU) (Turkey)
Istanbul Technical University (ITU) (Turkey)
Fachhochschule Munster (FH Munster) (Germany)
University of Thessaly (UTH) (Greece)
Universidade de Lisboa (ULISBOA) – FAUL (Portugal)