Architectural education has received attention from within and even from outside the field, and it has even been presented as a model for all professional education, as i.e. by Donald Schön, since 1983 and 1985. In conditions of globalized capitalism, developing tendencies in education, such as the shift from objectivist to constructivist paradigms, have not left architectural education unaffected. Especially since the global financial crisis of 2008 it is expected to remain under scrutiny: Does contemporary architectural education have the purpose of developing the student’s individual expressiveness, or is it a process of coming to terms with society, and even, developing a ‘world’ citizenry? Is it a process of unifying the fragmented areas of knowledge and interpretations of reality into an articulated and meaningful whole or is it about acquiring instrumental knowledge towards professional mastery? The motivation for this thesis was born in the aporia of how we could situate, in the context of broad questions as the above, the enquiry into ways of investigating better teaching and learning in architecture. This research draws from examples of architectural education in the U.K. and from previous research work undertaken in the U.K., as well as from relevant deliberations from the international educational scene. The thesis distinguishes between pedagogy and didactics within the current discourse, and argues for the priority of didactics in the framing of explanations for architectural education. The main questions are: (a) what are ways to investigate better modes of learning in architecture, and (b) what are presuppositions for establishing a special didactics for architecture. Two methods of enquiry are employed in this thesis. One is argumentative analysis, used on two exemplary cases of a subcategory of the broader discussion, described in this thesis as ‘discussion at the extremes’. The other is philosophical explanation, used to investigate the logical, theoretical and philosophical presuppositions and consequences of architectural education. The ‘Theory of Experience in Education’ by John Dewey and the ‘Theory of Skill Acquisition’ by Hubert Dreyfus, representing the distinct theoretical frames of pragmatism and phenomenology respectively, are proposed for the study of architecture’s two didactic tools, of the Design Studio project and the Live project. The approach is dialogic, attempting to bridge qualities of the two frames into a hybrid descriptive model. The thesis concludes with the proposed component of a descriptive didactics for architecture. At the end, this thesis puts forward the opening of a broader discussion about the prospects for a didactics and meta-didactics of architecture.

The dissertation investigates the role of autobiographical memories with emotional significance in architectural design conjecturing. The dissertation is structured as a set of individual articles (chapters), each can be read independently. To set the background to the empirical research, an overview of models of the design process, intuition in design, memory, emotion and place are presented. The empirical research consists of comparison of two case studies. Ethnographic methods were used for data collection. Direct analysis, indirect analysis (content analysis of protocols) and analysis of language for affect were used to scrutinize the data. Findings clearly indicate the utilization of autobiographical memories with emotional significance in design conjecturing. The study describes the types of autobiographical memories with emotional significance and purpose of their use in design conjecturing. In general, the dissertation study indicated that half of thought content used by architects during design conjecturing comes from their autobiographical experience. At the same time, personal experiences of students are neglected in architectural education. Overview of the current status of architectural education leads to the argument that academia is due for a paradigm change. The dissertation provides suggestion on the direction of changes in design education.

The project-based research questions how professionals working in the built environment can engage a broader range of 'others' (students, client, users) in ways of seeing and acting in a meaningful way. It challenges the role of the expert in architecture and urban design and in particular their use of the masterplan, which is often an oversimplified reductive response, laden with generalisations and the ill-considered overlay of inappropriate models. Design methods are designed to enable us to see afresh and respond accordingly. These are demonstrated in three suites of projects that include urban installations such as Five Walks for the Melbourne International Arts Festival, war memorials, lectures, photographs and teaching practice such as Taipei Operations, a student workshop, architectural exhibition, and book. The design research is situated within an expanded field of cross-disciplinary practice that includes art, landscape architecture, urban design, architecture and geography. Tools are developed to enable us to understand the city at many spatial and temporal scales; observations made at a micro scale reveal systems at a macro scale - a bottom-up approach. The application of the methods explored implies that

Formulated as a feminist project, written as a pulp fiction, Architectural Flirtations: A Love Storey begins with our claim that the architectural discipline is centered around a culture of critique, which is based in what bell hooks calls “a system of imperialist, white supremacist, heterosexist, capitalist, patriarchy,” and that the values instilled by this culture not only begin with, but are reinforced and reproduced by, the education of young architects. Sounds serious. Right? In a move toward a more vulnerable, ethical and empowering culture of architecture, the project aims to displace the culture of critique, by questioning and undermining relationships of power and privilege through practices that are explicitly critical, queer feminist, and Campy. In other words, it takes seriously, in an uncertain, improper and playful way, what is usually deemed unserious within the architectural discipline, in order to undermine the usual order of things. All of the (love) storeys take place on March 21st, the spring equinox, in and around a 1977 collaborative row house project called Case Unifamiliari in Mozzo, Italy, designed by Aldo Rossi and Attilio Pizzigoni. Beda Ring, PhD researcher, constructs a Campy renovation of one of these row houses, full of theatricality, humor, and significant otherness; while architectural pedagogue, Brady Burroughs, guides a student group from KTH in an Architecture and Gender course; and Henri T. Beall, practicing architect, attends to the details upstairs. / <p>QC 20161025</p>