The augmented studio: Teaching and learning in digital space

A physical and pedagogical entity, the design studio embraces and fosters collaboration beyond its physical borders, however the move to online teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic presented significant challenges to the delivery of architecture and design education, especially in terms of transposing the ‘studio’ environment – it’s ‘signature pedagogy’ - to a virtual alternative. Prompting a deep reflection on and rethinking of teaching and learning within this context, it is our contention that this experience deserves a new empirical framework able to challenge existing pedagogic practices that are fundamentally resistant to change.
Reviewing a year in the life of the BA (Hons) Interior Architecture programme at Middlesex University in London, we explore the use of digital platforms as an emergent spatial typology, investigating pedagogical engagement in a digitally networked learning environment. Articulating a future scenario where the design studio will exist as a mixed reality entity, we propose the “Augmented Studio”, as an emerging pedagogic landscape within which we prepare, shape, and equip teaching and learning moving forward. What precedents exist for this augmented environment? How might these inform the evolution of a new pedagogic framework for spatial design education and how might future pedagogy continue to be shaped by digital-era technologies?