Improving Architectural Design Skills with Design-Based Learning of New Structures

The purposeful and applied learning of Structures as a pillar of architectural design is very important. The current educational content of Structures in architecture departments is based on theoretical discussions, mathematical formulas, and lecture-oriented material. As a result, students are incompetent in applying practical concepts and structural formal analyses to architectural design. Effective and applied learning of Structures is an important part of the educational process in all architectural programs. For this, the introduction of a course about New Structures and their efficient use throughout the design process in the architecture curriculum is very much needed to improve the students’ design skills.
This study aims to delineate an effective educational solution for improving architectural design skills with design-based learning of new structural technologies. This scientific solution is a fusion of design skills development with a constructivist approach in interactive learning. The goal is to measure the effect of integration and interface of New Structures and students’ architectural design skills. The study was carried out in two stages of pre-testing (pilot) and post-testing (main) in an architectural design studio as an interactive and constructivist learning environment. The statistical population of the study consisted of the students of the third semester of the master’s program of architecture in Islamic Azad University, Hamadan Branch, who were divided into three 15-member groups, one of which was the experimental group and the two others were control groups. The data were collected, assessed and analyzed based on the main components of the study and consecutive tests and according to scientific appraisal criteria. The findings indicate a positive correlation between the interactive learning of new structural technologies in the design studio and improvement of the main components of design skills.