Teaching Architectural Design through Character Reading

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Martin Schoch
Sunaree Lawanyawatna

Abstract

Teaching the understanding of critical thinking within architectural design education supports
students to develop design thinking and strengthens individual creative design processes. To comprehend
architectural design teaching through critical thinking more effectively, an approach to introduce character
reading as a design methodology was investigated in a second year architectural design studio. Through a
guided process, students were asked to explore distinctive qualities of characters appearing in a novel and
implement them into an architectural design for residential use. The student’s performance was measured by
evaluating their argumentative approach and their final design. As an outcome, most students successfully
showed improved creative and visible development of their designs through character reading and its
implementation as a design methodology. Critical thinking as well as character reading proved to be a
critical in design education and design thinking.

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