Digital Explorers/Digitalized Explorations: A First-Year Architectural Design Studio Experiment on Distant Urban Interventions

Abstract

First year design education is one of the most challenging stages of architectural education. Although first-year architectural design studio mainly follows the footsteps of Bauhaus Ecole in many institutions focusing on establishing an abstract way of thinking while preparing students for upcoming architectural design studios, some institutions design their curriculum to address the fundamentals of architectural design in the first year. Gazi University's Department of Architecture follows this path where first year education is treated as a stage where abstract thinking is introduced, while also acting as an intermediary step to use basic design thinking to design habitable units. Focusing on Architectural Project II, the chapter explores the teaching methodologies of first-year design studio taught at Gazi University and aims to present the specific pedagogies, design strategies, and students' approaches to first-year education on the project conducted during Spring semester of 2021 titled Digital Explorers/Digitalized Explorations: Distant Urban Interventions to Istanbul's Kadıköy.