Abstract

As master builders the earliest architects resembled highly skilled craftspeople replete with intimate knowledge of materials and their structural potential. Then, as now, the discipline of architecture straddled the world of art and science, synthesizing and transforming knowledge from these two realms into built cultural artefacts; however, current practice is significantly more disparate. This paper presents the trials and tribulations of a graduate level introductory course in structures for architecture students designed to cultivate a robust appreciation for the possible synergy of material, artistic, and scientific aspects of structural design and education. The pedagogy hybridizes an empirical, iterative learning process with mathematical problem based learning and sequential refinement. The exercise described within strives to balance objective and subjective factors that affect the design of structure and explores the fertile ground that exists in the pursuit of artistic and scientific synthesis in architectural education.

Author: Jerry Hacker

Published in: Canada International Conference on Education, 2022

  • Date of Conference: 21-23 June, 2022
  • DOI: 10.20533/CICE.2022.0039
  • Electronic ISBN: 978-1-913572-49-5
  • Conference Location: Virtual (Mississauga, Canada)

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