Exploring the Field of Interaction in Architectural Design Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Exploring the Field of Interaction in Architectural Design Education

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Context
Architecture as an education needs to strengthen its knowledge-transfer infrastructure and breed an interactive, flexible learning environment to absorb ever-changing needs and objectives of the professional/research sides of the field of architecture, and find ways to steer the poles of the knowledge triangle (research/education/profession) to enhance the innovation potential of European educational and research system in terms of handling the transformation of the built environment.

Architectural design education programs have the potential to steer the poles of the knowledge triangle within the two key fields of interaction at their core curricula. The final architectural design studio (FADS) and internship program are fields of interaction and transitional learning domains as thresholds that bridge academic education and the professional world. Thus, they not only represent the incorporation and culmination of the educational cycle but also the interaction and synthesis of all the accumulated experiences of the student.

Objectives
The objective of project was to first explore and then innovate the paths followed by the in-between mediation activities occurring in these two fields of interaction (methods, processes, and execution), in this way to enhance architectural education programs that are compatible with EU directives and 2011 EU modernisation agenda by respecting local and regional qualities.

Partnership
e-FIADE have created a platform to share/experience/exchange architectural educational practices and academic expertise with the following organisations:
TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Department of Architecture (TURKEY)
The European Association of Architectural Education (BELGIUM)
Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of the Built Environment (THE NETHERLANDS)
University of Zagreb, The Faculty of Architecture (CROATIA)
Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Architecture (TURKEY)
Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Strasbourg (FRANCE)
Universidade Lusofona, School of Architecture (PORTUGAL)

Main Activities and Results
The project activities were managed by four work teams (FADS and internship research; project management; quality assessment and dissemination) and through 7 transnational project meetings. e-FIADE accommodated diverse formal and informal teaching, learning, training environments: 3 forum sessions on FADS and internship, one intensive architectural design studios (IADS), and one joint FADS among the partner HEIs, followed by the exhibition of the students’ works at the joint FADS at the EAAE Annual Conference 2019.

Through these activities, it produced 4 seminal intellectual outputs to fulfil the project objectives:
(O1-2) Mapping and analysis of existing diploma studio tracks and curricular internship models in the European departments of architecture based on the knowledge, skills, and competences defined by EU directive 2013/55.
(O3-4) Alternative paths for diploma studios and curricular internships that respect the synthesis of the major challenges of our era affecting the profession and the emerging ‘hybrid, trans-disciplinary’ professional areas of the 21st century both in local and international context.

The dissemination happened through 4 seminars entitled “e-FIADE Seminar: Thresholds in Architectural Education” organised in İstanbul, Ankara (Turkey), Strasbourg (France), and Zagreb (Croatia). The 4th seminar represented the project results to the representatives of many European schools of architecture at the EAAE Annual Conference. All the project materials, major lectures, and the intellectual outputs are published open-source at the project website.

Impact
The initial impacts measured through the verbal feedback from students, instructors and professionals attending the dissemination events showed that the mapping outputs are key reference documents that help academics understanding both where their existing studio practices and the mutual interaction between the formal and non-formal learning in their school curricula stand. Likewise, the alternative paths were appreciated as a valuable repertoire bringing together hybrid practices that involve people from the three sides of the knowledge triangle of the discipline. The research topics feed the current and future activities of the Education Academy working under the EAAE and the Turkish council working on access to the profession. The participating partners have started establishing the alternative studio models and the internship app produced by e-FIADE.

Longer-term benefits
e-FIADE results will have long-term impacts on research in architectural education that explore, discuss, and consider new and innovative perspectives on the crossings, interactions, and transformations of non-formal, informal learning, and formal learning within or prior to FADS and Internship and on the formation of the Charter on Architectural Education.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 205175,29 Eur

Project Coordinator

TOBB EKONOMI VE TEKNOLOJI UNIVERSITESI & Country: TR

Project Partners

• SVEUCILISTE U ZAGREBU ARHITEKTONSKI FAKULTET
• INSTITUT NATIONAL DES SCIENCES APPLIQUEES, STRASBOURG
• EAAE – AEEA (European Association for Architectural Education vzw – Assocation Européenne pour l’Enseignement de l’Architecture
• MIMAR SINAN FINE ARTS UNIVERSITY
• COFAC COOPERATIVA DE FORMACAO E ANIMACAO CULTURAL CRL
• TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN