Re-solved: iterating design solutions by understanding failure

Abstract

Design is considered one of the most important parts of an architectural education.

Much emphasis is placed upon the Design Studio within a School of Architecture, yet in the traditional tutor/student model how much opportunity is there for the student to understand the process of designing when emulation forms the heart of the learning?

This paper reflects upon a series of large scale fabrication projects offered to students from 2012-2014 in Christchurch, New Zealand, under the umbrella of FESTA. These projects challenged the students to confront a series of ‘firsts’; to work collaboratively, to present themselves professionally, to navigate regulatory bodies, to engage with a client, and to realise a project at full, one to one, scale.

These projects tend to exist without a specific precedent for students to draw upon, as would be usual when designing one of any number a normal building typology. This forces students into a space of discovery, one where a design can change for any multitude of reasons. Students are moved from the usual Design Studio experience of problem solving to one where the situation is uncertain and problematic, to a space of problem setting.