The augmented studio: Teaching and learning in digital space

‘In mixed reality environments, where the physical and virtual merge, every object has the potential to be smart. Every fitting, button, handle, knob, moulding, cornice, ledge has the potential to become a switch, gate, window, link to worlds beyond that in which they materially exist.’

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 in 2020, 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 how the use of digital platforms signaled an emergent spatial typology, investigating pedagogical engagement in a digitally networked learning environment, that sits within the broader context of the Internet of Things, and more latterly, the Internet of Spaces. Further, since the pandemic new forms of Artificial Intelligence have begun to significantly impact upon this learning environment, once again challenging the efficacy of the Design Studio as a pedagogic space. Articulating a future scenario where the Design Studio will necessarily 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?

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Teaching Architecture(s) in the Post-Covid Era: The New Age of Digital Design on May 23, 2024, available online: http://www.routledge.com/9781032564104
It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

After submitting the conference paper at 'A Focus on Pedagogy' conference, we have been asked to develop an extended version of the paper to be included as a book chapter.