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.
