Sessions

The symposium will be divided in four thematic sessions:

Contributions of the cognitive sciences to experiential learning in architecture

The first session will give us the opportunity to clarify the differences that will be made in the presentations between experience, experiments and experimentation as well as the differences between learning by doing, learning through experimentation and experiential learning when applied to architecture education. Online contribution by keynote speaker David C. Kolb himself will prompt the symposium participants to clarify the theoretical issues that the confrontation of experiential learning and architectural design training raises. Exchanges with other experts in cognitive sciences and psychology related to spatial knowledge (psycho-geography and psycho-topography) will help faculty members in the audience to define exactly what are the specificities of experiential learning applied to the education of architects.

Experimentation methods in environmental design education

After this cognitive sciences input, the symposium will focus on how the method of learning through experience and experiments can be implemented in architecture education. It will first be necessary to have a closer look at the history of hands-on architectural practice through ages and continents. Practices by historical figurehead such as Antonio Gaudi, Jean Prouvé, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Frank O. Gehry and Renzo Piano will be used as examples. Participants will then focus on the history of implementation of learning-by-doing educational programs in schools of architecture, as well as schools of engineering and environmental sciences departments in different international universities. The Bauhaus syllabus (1919-1933) and the Black Mountain College experiment (1933-1957) will be referred to as primary experiences.

Design-build experiences throughout the world 

(impact on academic curriculae and sociocultural contexts)

The symposium will then examine contemporary design-build studios throughout the world in order to draw a correct picture of the state of the art at the present time. International participants will present case studies of exemplary programs. In North and South America, in Asia and in Europe, they will show how these programs have either focused on educational methodological issues by developing coherent curriculum with high performance standards, either focused on responding to social issues by embedding a design-build program in specific areas to follow a political agenda such as helping poor communities to produce affordable housing in local contexts

Experiential learning impact on professional practice

After presentation of these examples, the last session will move to the influence of this form of education on actual professional practice: are people trained with such methods in a better position to perform their role in the society than others trained in a traditional individualistic way? Architects and artists of different countries will show how experimentation has been included in their own professional practices and how this has shaped their own practice of design.