In Iran, there is an “Enter Testing” for students to public universities, which are at the high level of national and international ranking. In this process, the universities which are located in non-capital cities, normally will approve students in lower level in comparison with who will enter to the universities of capital cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, Mashhad, Tabriz and Shiraz. Semnan is ranked at “good” level universities in IRAN. Each year our approved students are exactly interested in Architecture and the problem is the non-comprehensive enter testing which did not let them enter to the mother universities. Some of them tries to transfer from Semnan to Tehran obtaining highest GPA in the first semester.
I have been head of the Dept. of Architecture since last year, in this year, we tried to attract professional and more experiented Persian professors and architects to the department, furthermore, as a professor, I tried to manage a new program which is intitled: “observation and participation to rebuild our school”. This program encouraged students to continue gaining more experiences and facing a practical architectural program. Firstly, we invited juniors and freshmen to participate in the preliminary studies of a project which focused on reorganization of open spaces around the central building of the school. It was a comprehensive study on “desert plants” which will be used in the landscape design of surrounding context of the school. At the second level, this semester, there will be a competition to manage, design and organize the inner spaces of “Design Studios”; After the end of the judgement process, winners should be directors of a practical experiment which will encourage them to build the interior space of their own studios based on the winner design concept.
In the universities of capital cities, this kind of opportunities will not be available easily; but in the School of Architecture of Semnan, which faces comprehensive spatial development in near future, there is a possibility to invite freshmen to practice to be an architect and to feel the difficulties of real architectural works in professional world. It means an invitation to be what should be.
It is a school of Architecture on the northern edge of the central desert of IRAN with a majority of local students, in some semesters more than 55% (Tehran province also has been considered as a semiarid climate). Students have felt the local natural situation during their life, they are familiar with the local limitations, and it helps us to save time, to use their ability and their overall point of view to rehabilitate and reorganize the school precincts. Numerous spatial definitions should be added and so many should be revised and rehabilitated.
1 The Context where we have pace on
It is a school of Architecture on the northern edge of the central desert of IRAN with a majority of local students, in some semesters more than 55% (Tehran province also has been considered as a semiarid climate). Students have felt the local natural situation during their life, they are familiar with the local limitations, and it helps us to save time, to use their ability and their overall point of view to rehabilitate and reorganize the school precincts. Numerous spatial definitions should be added and so many should be revised and rehabilitated. Among the academic subjects, there are nomerous which can refer to rehabilitation of required spaces of the school, it means we didn’t, don’t and will not ignore energic human resouces: local students.
We need them to build their environment, and they need our experiments and ideas to practice, to grow up architecturally. There are equal opportunities for all participants, and we respect rules; even sometimes the rules are defined by our junior architects, and we just have somecomments to give them feeling of effectiveness and self-confidence. The entire experiment will take two years. The expected goal is being familiar with“designerly way of knowing and thinking” (Cross, 1982) along with a linear process of design practice (Lawson, 1994), towards increasing teachingeffectiveness. (Anderson, 2004)
2-4 Research Methodology (Silk Road Studies)
Based on national program for BA in Architecture, “Research Methodology” is an optional academic subject, and in all national universities they follow this rule. In our department, we have a different experience, our students are very good in design but they couldn’t relate their thoughts and ideas to their drawigns and designs. They’ve lost the chain between the two basic sides and perhaps never found it before. This side of their professional personality needs time and energy to go along with their hand sketching power. The department of Architecture decided to define “Research Methodology” as a permanent academic subject and it took place last semester. It was a very outstanding experience, they practiced to think in a specific way related to a research subject. Study was about architectural ornaments and their origins, especially brick-works: a comprehensive study has been defined, it was studied socially, historically and architecturally. It made them to be familiar with a comprehensive research and colaborative work which can be held between different professionals, from sociologists to architects. Furthermore they did try to find out how to use mother references at mother libraries like national library and parlament library in Tehran. They knew more about online book searching and indexing; they did know about the impact factor of journals which is somehow related to their scientific values. In final they did know that an architect should be a friend of books and libraries in adition to being a friend of nature, drawings, exhibitions, etc. They felt this important reality, instead of narrating them just as a comment at design studios, it may have strong influence on their professional life. The results of their work are going to be presented at an interntional congress as an oral presentation and also going to be published in the proceedings. Publication of their work and also invitation of jouniors to have lecture at international level gave them feeling of self-confiedence. It encouraged them to go forward as an architect who watches her/his enviornemnt from a completely different angle, whose thinking is multi-faceted and multi-leveled. (Cross, 1990) This kind of experience couldn’t happen in mother universities, they need time to make this kind of change accoridng to the assessment of studens’ abilities.
2 New Academic Programs In our department, 2009-2011 academic years were and will be active and productive priod of time, especially for students. There are four main programs:
To be familiar with desert plants (Focusing on Uni. environment to design a desert park for the school of Arts.)
To design a permanent exhibition hall for architectural productions (Architectural Museum)
To define and reorganize interior spaces of design studios
To participate in a professional research on “Silk Road” architectural ornaments
According to a well-known suggestion: “The way designers work may be inexplicable, not for some mysticsl reason, but simply because these processes lie outside the bounds of verbal discourse: they are literally indescribable in linguistic terms.” (Daley, 1982) During two years of project, we try to find the way of expressing design process which are bases of any architectural form and function; it means being familiar with design studies (Cross, 2007) before tracing on paper. 2-1 Desert Plants (Gardening the Desert) The intended goal of this program was to express that, like traditional crafts, nature tells us how best to shape, make and use it. (Cross, 1999) This program was considered for students of first semester. As it is mentioned in the following table, 48.27% of them were belonged to Semnan province; they are familiar with the climate and local values. 44.8% are from Tehran province where we face semiarid climate; therefore the majority of students have a comprehensive perspective of natural situation. They should research about more compatible plants with the environment of the school. They found three main types of plants: wildflowers, cactus & succulents and trees, shrubs & grasses which can be used to control natural polutions caused by sands and seasonal storms. The point was that students sank into the project: their study went on categorizing colors, fabrics and even geometical charactristics of plants, to put proper function at proper place. Second step was to estimate the whole budget which should be put for such a desert park for overall 5000 square meters. The result is going to be used for next semester program to rehabilitate the natural areas around the school; the final planning will be made by the faculty members of architectural department based on the recent student research. The students will be one who will take part in building and constructing the final plan. Name of Provinces Semnan Mazandaran Tehran Khorasan-e-Razavi Percent in the Whole Student Population 48.27% 3.44% 44.8% 3.44% 2-2 Permanent Ehxibition (Architectural Museum) Towards considering a museum for valuable existing archive of student works, department of architecture tried to be a member of an active international community who works on architectural records and museums. Presently the department of architecture is a member of ICAM (International Confederation of Architectural Museums).
Following the main goal (To keep valuable student works, espacially thesis and successful design practices) and to practice locally avaiable materials, remaining aware of limitations and surely to test, analyze and critically appraise design options and working as part of a design team, last semester there was an academic program concerning designing of a pure volume which can be used as an architectural museum. Results were brilliant, a considerable archive of volumes which remind an exhibition of architectural works. Most of examples have central court yards, it means students did mention the climate and natural needs to response to local limitations. They even suggested site, a part of land, for their building to be built on, with expressing reasons towards the selection. They felt that quality of design effort perfoundly affects quality of life (Cross, 1990), the kind of life which they’ve sank into It was a great practice to create an interdisciplinary discipline. (Cross, 1999) (All 46 subjects in the study (25 females and 21 males, on average 19.3 years old) were architecture students at the school of Arts, University of Semnan. They participated in the experiement as a mandatory part of their class.)
Here you can see two examples, belongs to a fourth semester student in Architecture. They did consider that central open space can not be avoided considering local conditions, and also shade should be made for openings and windows to avoid entering direct light to the exhibitional spaces. Furthermore it refers to the kind of light which we face in desert zones. The results were more than 45 patterns to design and build as an exhibition hall for the school of Arts.
Two examples of students drawings for architectural museum: the harmony between open and close spaces and also facade shading was intended to be discovered by students.
2-3 Interior Design Competition Academic design competition can change the overall ambience of a school positively, furthermore, it is an excellent way to demostrate that students have an ability to function on multi-discilinary teams. It was supposd to take place last semester, but according to some official problems, it is going to be held in the come the spring of the next semester. All architectural students can participate, but our suggestion will be to make design groups containing at least 6 persons from all semesters. There are two main design studios at the school, with white walls and without any kind of projections or surface movings on walls or roofs. The color is white, only window frames are dark brown; the ambience of the studios is a kind of inactivity and calmness. To change inactive space to an energic place, it was suggested to use curved frames for roofs and lighting design and cubic wooden frames for walls. The ambience of the studio should refer to Mediterranean climate, between central desert and northern coast. This project will make them to feel a part of their school whose decision is influencial in the future of the school. In order to motivate the participants the experimenter will announce that the best performer would win a prize, also the winner group should be responsible for constructing what they suggest as the final reorganization of design studios.
Implementation of a new academic programme (described above) an academic program concerning designing of a pure volume which can be used as an architectural museum. Results were brilliant, a considerable archive of volumes which remind an exhibition of architectural works. Most of examples have central court yards, it means students did mention the climate and natural needs to response to local limitations.
Students felt that quality of design effort perfoundly affects quality of life (Cross, 1990), the kind of life which they’ve sank into It was a great practice to create an interdisciplinary discipline. (Cross, 1999) (All 46 subjects in the study (25 females and 21 males, on average 19.3 years old) were architecture students at the school of Arts, University of Semnan. They participated in the experiement as a mandatory part of their class.)
According to the recent activities at the school, and respecting the meaning of public participation and democracy in design process, the department decided to invite students to express their opinions about the quality of spatial definitions and open spaces of the school. There will be two questionnaires available on December 2010; the results will affect coming revitalization programs. First questionnaire will discuss the necessity of reorganizing five main kinds of design studios and second will concern about open spaces and how the students desire to use them as inspiring spaces. This kind of prudences has three significant influences on the overall ambience of the design school:
Encouragement given to students to express their reorganization ideas
Rehabilitation of the existing spaces lessening required budget
Shaping a place which belongs to every member, from students to personnel
In coming semesters, in addition to the design competition, “Architectural Design 2” will present under my supervision. The name of the project is“Approach towards a smart design.” It is focused on designing of a private villa at the heart of desert. The department divided the program into four main sections: The meaning of local life (limitations and advantages), Social and psychological characteristics of users, Description of desired functions and finally “Approach towards a smart design”. (Bouchard, 2003) The results of this semester will be presented by the end of 2011 as a research paper Inshallah.
Selected References
Anderson, L.W., 2004, Increasing Teacher Effectiveness, UNESCO: Int. Institute for Educational Planning, 2nd Edition, Paris, France.
Bouchard, C., Lim, D., Aoussat, A., 2003, “Development of a Kansei Engineering System for industrial design: identification of input data for Kansei
Engineering Systems”, Journal of the Asian Design International Conference, Vol.1, No.12, Japan.
Cross, N., 1982, “Designerly Ways of Knowing”, Design Studies, Vol.3, No.4, Elsevier B.V., UK. Pp. 221-227.
Cross, N., 1990, “The Nature and Nurture of Design Ability”, Design Studies, Vol.11, No.3, Elsevier B.V., UK. Pp. 127-140.
Cross, N., 1999, “Design Research: A Disciplined Conversation”, Design Issues, Vol.15, No.2, MIT Press, USA.
Cross, N., 2007, “Forty Years of Design Research”, Design Studies, Vol.28, No.1, Elsevier B.V., UK. Pp. 1-4.
Daley, J., 1982, “Design Creativity and the Understanding of Objects”, Design Studies, Vol.3, No.3, Elsevier B.V., UK. Pp. 133-137.
Heylighen, A., Deisz, P., M. Verstijnen, I, 2007, “Less is more Original?”, Design Studies, Vol.28, No.5, Elsevier B.V., UK. Pp. 499-512.
Lawson, B., 1994, Design in Mind, Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd., Oxford, UK.
Powell, A., 2009 , “Educational Possibilities of Humanitarian Architecture”, Field: A Free Journal for Architecture: www.field-journal.org, Vol. 3, No. 1,
Sheffield, UK.
Here you can see two examples, belongs to a fourth semester student in Architecture. They did consider that central open space can not be avoided considering local conditions, and also shade should be made for openings and windows to avoid entering direct light to the exhibitional spaces.
Furthermore it refers to the kind of light which we face in desert zones. The results were more than 45 patterns to design and build as an exhibition hall for the school of Arts.
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