Architecture LIVE Projects

Asma Dauleh & Freddie Garside

Film School Concern A

Real clients. Real projects. Real deadlines.

“A LIVE project compromises the

negotiation of a brief, timescale, budget and product between an

educational organisation and an external

collaborator for their mutual benefit. The

project must be structured to ensure that students gain learning that is relevant to their

educational development”

(Anderson + Preist, Oxford Brookes University, 2012)

Orthodox Studio vs LIVE Projects

Controlled

Defined Brief

Defined Timescale

Freedom of creativity, may be just theoretical

No third party (client / stakeholder)

Little exposure to real life situations

Tutor Student

Knowledge Transfer

Orthodox Studio vs LIVE Projects

Entropy

Brief can change due to client / construction limitations / time constraints

Changing timescale due to unforeseen circumstances / troubleshooting

Has to adhere to real life constraints such as budget, building regs etc…

Must work with a client / third party / community

Constantly responding / solving problems that arise throughout the project

Tutor Student

Knowledge Transfer

The Network - Schools of Architecture

Live Projects were born out of a desire to open up opportunities for students to work with community groups out in the city and further afield while still being supported by the School of Architecture. Instead of simply replicating experiences they have already had in their year out practice, students work with real clients on real projects, but within an academic context. As a result some schools have go on to open their own Project offices.

Sheffield London Met Portsmouth Leeds Beckett

“We tell clients: ‘You are going to have to work hard with these students, give them more time than you are used to and have questions asked of you that

you don’t expect. You will probably end up coming out of this with a different thing than you expected. But usually the case is that what clients have at

the end is far better and more relevant than they expected.”

(Carolyn Butterworth, Sheffield school of Architecture)

THE COMMON FACTORS OF LIVE PROJECTS

The reason some schools have opened their own Project Offices is for managerial projects due to the fact LIVE projects usually operate outside the typical seamster structure of a University. They operate in the ‘real world’. There are 6 main common factors within a l ive projects, these are external collaborator, educational organisation, brief, timescale, budget and product. Other factors will venture in and each will have its own toll on the outcome of the process and eventually the project.

A typical year one project plotted against each of the six spectra common to all LIVE Projects according to CITYzen Agency

New Wortley Community Centre

Film School

Paradigm; noun, plural paradigms; the constellation of beliefs, rules, knowledge, etc. that is valid for a particular design community.

The Paradigms

People. Expose students to a wide variety of people implicated in the architectural process. Other professionals, contractors, client bodies, community groups.

Process. Offer students opportunities to participate in stages beyond the design phase. Defining briefs, fundraising, costing projects, developing market strategies.

Materials/Construction. Allow direct interaction with materials and the process of assembly, gaining knowledge and “know how” thus helping to inform their development and practice as architects.

Varied Skills. Long list of skills develop due to wide range of project demands. Group work, audience responsive communication, reporting, negotiation, marketing, social media, etc.

Value Systems. Knowing that there are conflicting and contentious views of architecture is valuable for students as they begin to triangulate their own positions.

Critique. Orthodox design studio projects provide the perfect grounds for abstract risk free designs which can be critically analysed. However l ive projects are complex, unpredictable and constrained by real life measures, so in that case they must be assessed differently.

Considering methodSupport. Support comes in various forms / options : Tutors select, prepare and manage the process to varying degrees. Or students select the projects, increasing their understanding and ownership. Each scenario adds the portfolio of knowledge around live research projects.

Timing. Projects within the curriculum do not fit easily within the semester layout. In the future it is expected that live projects become longer and merge into ‘lite’ versions of work in practice. Hence some argue that live projects have no place in undergraduate. However varied abilities and skills are preferred as this helps with the expansion of knowledge.

“Perhaps we require a clearer theoretical and practical understanding of the differences between assessment,

volarization and critique and more particularly their role and timing and significance in developing and sustaining students’

creative practice.”

Morrow, 2014

The Pedagogy of Architecture

“Learning by Doing” formed an integral part of the workshops taught by Johannes Itten and Josef Albers at the Bauhaus from 1919-1922.

The real problem with the current way in which Architecture is taught is the emergent “knowledge gap”. The current system seems to expect that employers teach the ‘gaps’ yet the employers require that the students already have an understanding of these ‘gaps’.

Live Projects exist between the two tectonic plates of learning in academia and in practice (Ruth Morrow, 2014). This approach towards an alternative form of learning allows students to pursue self-initiated projects of their own within the framework of a more rigorous real-practice setting, allowing a deeper learning experience.

Pedagogy; noun, plural pedagogies; The art or science of teaching; education; instructional methods.

Standard studio learning halts

here

Live projects expanded exposure

Taxonomies of Learning

The Reflective Practitioner

Schon proposed that one to one design studio tuition is effective precisely because it stimulates professional architectural practice. The tutor – student relationship transfers concise knowledge effectively. The problem here is that it demands ‘the imposition of an order’.

Donald Schon (1983) was an influential thinker in developing the theory and practice of reflective professional learning in the 20th century.

Experimental Learning Model (ELM)

David Kolb is an educational theorist who's interest and publications focus on experimental learning.

Kolb’s experimental learning model (ELM). Do. Reflect. Think. Practice. The learner experiences, discovers and the applies their new found knowledge. The problem with this is that it’s the pedagogical frame work is electric and insufficiently critical.

Theories for Live Projects Live projects are widespread in architectural education, yet they have not been extensively theorised. There are two tensions affecting the development of sustainable live project pedagogies. !1) A tension between process and product that must

be acknowledged when distinguishing design/build projects from larger category live projects

2) a tension between two theoretical categories: complicated pedagogies and complex pedagogies. !

Thus we should critique our own teaching and practice in order to develop appropriate pedagogies.

Complicated pedagogies. Seek to reduce phenomena to elemental components, root causes and fundamental laws.

Complex pedagogies. Suggest that learning is not about acquiring or accumulating information. Rather, learning is principally a matter of keeping pace with one’s evolving circumstances. !By focusing on the internalised process, Schon’s theory of reflective learning and Kolb’s ELM over look the great potential of design studio to be theorized as a holistic learning environment.

!“The very nature of the

design studio as a project-based learning

space can thwart attempts to make sense of it through complicated pedagogies. We should

recognise that knowledge is contingent, contextual, and evolving; never absolute universal

or fixed.” !!!

Davis et al. 2000

Pedagogy; noun, plural pedagogies; The art or science of teaching; education; instructional methods.

Benefits to clients As a profession, architects are by definition tasked with serving the interests of the public. Yet many architects would argue that delivering upon this requirement is not without difficulty given the constraints of a sector focused triptych that prioritises time, quality and cost over human factors.

Benefits to the profession Architecture practices have often voiced concerns that schools of architecture do not provide students with the right set of skills needed in practice. This kind of teaching is usually delivered within a studio environment that presents students with fictional rather than ‘real time’ challenges

Benefits to students The majority of UK architecture students have no contact with clients or with the consultation process until after they graduate. ‘Live studio’ projects not only address this but they also enable students to gain practice-ready professional experience such as job running, as well as develop a sense of civic social engagement

Do we need LIVE Architecture project pedagogy?

Do we need LIVE Architecture project pedagogy?

Benefits to Universities It is an opportunity to establish partnerships that provide enduring benefits by mobilising students, faculty, and neighbourhood organisations to work together to solve urban problems that revitalise the economy, generate jobs, and rebuild communities

“In the USA, community partnerships are far more prevalent than in the UK. Known as Community University Partnerships, these ‘resource units’ that are often located on

and off campus, provide effective, community-engaged scholarship for

students from a range of disciplines. Based upon the success rate of these kinds of learning environments, UK Universities clearly have some catching up to do.”

(Harriet Harriss - 2012)

(Megan Clark - 2014) Course Patterns

Live Projects exist between the two tectonic plates of learning in academia and in practice (Morrow, 2014). This approach towards an alternative form of learning allows students to pursue self-initiated projects of their own within the framework of a more rigorous real-practice setting, allowing a deeper learning experience. !During live projects a mutual trust is built up between students and tutors that motivates learning and starts to develop a shared exploration of what the design process involves and what it is to practice as an architect.

There is a need to create an operational and theoretical framework for this mode of pedagogy.

Editiors of the book; “Architecture live projects, pedagogy into practice” Harriet Harriss and Lynnette Widderm position live projects at the juncture of academia and profession, making a case for hybrid of the pedagogical and practical. As such the arenas for architectural education must be questioned in relationship to the expanded role of the architect, an economically precarious profession and a global practice. !

Pedagogy into Practice

Architectural pedagogy even in the form of Live projects, is not architectural practice, though it frequently overlaps.

The friction between Theory (Architecture school) and practice (work) as an active space of experimentation (Live Architecture). Froud, a member of the London-based firm Agents of Change describes this area of productivity as a “rub” writing “it is a means to test theories of democracy, of engagement, of the politics of form and to think about what theories and propositions start to emerge through the experience accumulated as evidence”.

Developing a live projects Network and flexible Methodology for Live ProjectsBuilding on existing and emerging relationships with other institutional live project contexts, the online resource will become a critical point of reference to connect students, educators, clients, practitioners and researchers to promote the use and best practice of live projects in architectural education and also contribute to the establishment of a theoretical basis for the study of live projects.

Developing a live projects Network and flexible Methodology for Live ProjectsBuilding on existing and emerging relationships with other institutional live project contexts, the online resource will become a critical point of reference to connect students, educators, clients, practitioners and researchers to promote the use and best practice of live projects in architectural education and also contribute to the establishment of a theoretical basis for the study of live projects.

MORLEY NEWLANDS PLAYSCAPE THE EVER CHANGING PROCESS

MORLEY NEWLANDS PLAYSCAPE - - THE EVER CHANGING PROCESS

Real projects for real clients with real deadlines. !A live project is an embodiment of the innovative ways in which we can teach and learn Architecture. Through live projects, staff and students continually construct their own learning through action, research and experience. !!Key Skills…. !Design skills - Spatial design, construction, writing a report, running workshops, making presentations and delivering exhibitions. !Management skills - Organising a project team, client communication, programming, resourcing, managing expectations, meeting deadlines. !Critical skills - Ability to understand your project in the wider context and reflecting upon the role of the Architect.

In Summary…

Evaluation points…

How influential are the workshops on the LIVE project? !!How much control / influence do students have on the design? !!How much control / influence does the stakeholder have on the brief? !!What other constraints are likely to arise and how will this affect the project? !!How far can we push the boundaries / increase engagement with students from different courses? !!If more people are involved, does this complicate the project or enhance it? !!Who takes the lead role? Or can it maintain a collaborative effort throughout the project? !

People of Interest

Jane Anderson - Is the co-founder of the online Live Projects Network and also OB1 LIVE a program of live Architecture at Oxford Brookes University.

James Benedict Brown - Has a PhD which developed a pedagogical critique of the live project which was completed in 2012 at Queens University Belfast.

Prue Chiles - Is an academic and a founding partner of Co-Arch Studio. She initiated the Live Project Programme at Sheffield in 1998.

Ruth Morrow - Is a curatorial advisor to the PS2 art collective in Belfast and director of Tactility Factory.

Rachel Sara - Focusses her interests on “other” forms of Architecture and how this influences the Architects daily role.

Donald Schon - Made a remarkable contribution to our understanding of the theory and practice of learning.

Simon Warren - Is the co-founder of Project Office at Leeds Beckett University, and is readily available for questions and conversations about his recent experiences with LIVE Projects.

Craig Stott, Simon Warren & Andy Pye - The founders of Project Office

Universities of Interest

Birmingham School of Architecture http://www.bcu.ac.uk/architecture/working-with-business/live-projects !Leeds Beckett http://cagd.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/projectoffice/ !London Metropolitan University http://www.thecass.com/projects/projects !Nottingham http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/engineering/departments/abe/postgraduate/index2.aspx Oxford Brookes University http://architecture.brookes.ac.uk/liveprojects !University of Portsmouth http://projectoffice.port.ac.uk/ !Sheffield School of Architecture http://www.liveprojects.org/

For Further Reading

http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.304156!/file/Live_Projects_Handbook_Med_Single.pdf

http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/best/bloom.html !http://reviewing.co.uk/research experiential .learning.htm#axzz3Ul6EOcat !https://www.academicsuiterx.com/

!http://infed.org/mobi/donald-schon-learning-reflection-change/

!http://architecture.brookes.ac.uk/events/240512.html !http://thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational-learning/learning/principles-of-learning/learning-pyramid/

By Freddie Garside & Asma Dauleh CITYzen Agency