Author(s): Pavlina Ilieva
This paper explores the challenges and benefits of two opposing learning models in Beginning Design education – the experiential versus referential. Reflecting on the development and implementation of the Beginning Design curriculum of the pre-professional Architecture and Environmental Design program at Morgan State University, a minority serving public institution, the author proposes a constructivist learning approach that uses recombinant strategies from the two established pedagogical models. The reconstructive pedagogy seeks to mediate the gaps between students’ diverse academic background, cultural reality of space and goals for the future with traditional architectural pursuits and contemporary disciplinary concerns. In response to the emerging needs of a multicultural design education, key strategies involve: 1) use of students’ diverse experiences and overall lack of familiarity with the field as a point of departure for expanding architectural cannon across disciplines, scales and cultures, 2) cultivate habits of the mind and hand that nurture a personal perspective while fostering a culture of rigor and care, 3) distance from high architecture in formal terms in favor of more socially concerned design problems relative to students’ motivation for entering the field.
Volume Editors
Amir Ameri & Rebecca O'Neal Dagg
ISBN
978-1-944214-15-9