Studio 19: assessing the future of a new zealand design document build studio

Abstract

This paper will assess Studio 19, the design-build-document studio offered at the Unitec New Zealand School of Architecture in Auckland, New Zealand, for the past four years. It will begin with a brief history of 'building' in architecture. It will then shift to a discussion of design/build studios in general, focusing on their pedagogical outcomes. These include: enabling a design process that engages the entire body, promoting a sense of social responsibility in future architects, the acquisition of specialized skills, and learning to work in groups. The paper will then discuss the difficulties, from an institutional perspective, of running a design-document-build studio. These include the difficulty of finding passionate educators with a highly specialized skill set, fitting the studio into an existing curriculum, and funding the studio. Finally, the paper will suggest some possible ways in which pedagogical outcomes might be more consistently achieved and the difficulties of offering the studio might be minimized.