Changing How We Teach Architectural Design: Integrating Impact into the Curriculum

The seminar will present the outputs and findings from our TDG project “Changing how we teach architectural design: Integrating impact into the curriculum.” The aim of the project was to change how design studios are taught within the TPG MArch Programme of the Department of Architecture at HKU and position HKU as a global innovator in design pedagogy. Design studios are responsible for the majority of credits within the programme and are the mainstay of all architectural programmes around the world.

The focus of the project is to integrate impact –defined as the capacity to deliver positive change– into teaching architectural design studios. Architects typically operate as service providers, providing design and construction co-ordination of buildings for clients. This is emulated in the teaching of architectural design studios where students are asked to fulfil the requirements of a design brief, where constraints and outputs are specified.  Currently, the built environment is at the forefront of urgent issues affecting society including the environmental crisis, affordable housing, the provision of infrastructure, and improving health and well-being. The traditional model of design teaching is not sufficient in its scope or methods to prepare future architects for these challenges.  The aim was to create a new model of teaching architecture that addresses the global shift in the profession to focus on more sustainable outcomes for the built environment, in particular responding to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The project involved collaborating with the Faculty of Business’ Impact Lab to demonstrate how we can incorporate entrepreneurship and strategies of impact finance into how we teach architecture. Enhancing students’ abilities to develop holistic design propositions with integrated considerations for impact, going beyond one-off design proposals.  The overall aim was to create a framework structure for integrating impact that can be utilized by all teachers in the MArch programme which comprises of 180 plus students. This framework provides methods to change how we teach design studios to embed the idea of impact at each stage in the process of design and construction.