Introducing Other Forms of Art to the Design Studio: An Approach of Using 'Poetry` as a Source of Inspiration

Abstract

'Design studio’ is the core course unit/module of any architecture degree programme as well as the place where the architecture students learn by self-involvement with the teachers ‘guidance. Although the Design teachers often try to employ different methods to teach Design, it is observed that most of the students struggle with formulating a meaningful design concept in their process. Therefore, a new approach is needed which would help the students to come up with a good design concept. It is hypothesized that, as Architecture is considered as a form of art (useful art), introducing another form of art (Poetry) as a source of inspiration in the design process would be beneficial for most of the students. This paper presents how the first design project of the 2nd year of BArch programme conducted by Southern Campus of General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) helped the students for formulating a meaningful concept. As this is a ‘studio/classroom research’, the students’ involvement is remarkable and highlighted. The primary objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness of using Poetry in the Design Studio as a source of inspiration to identify the qualities of the generators of architecture. Two groups of Architecture (BArch) students who were in their 2nd year respectively in 2016 and 2017 were selected as participants by using purposive sampling method. The both groups of students were provided with ‘Haiku’ poems as the source of inspiration so that they could use them individually to identify the generators. Final task of the project was to design a space for a specific purpose preceded by a design concept. The process and the final design were evaluated and analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The analysis showed that this approach was effective in the design process as it facilitated the students in formulating meaningful design concepts.