STUDIO CULTURE: TEACHING DESIGN WITHIN THE STUDIO ENVIRONMENT

Since the times of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, in the 18th.- Century, architectural schools have developed a very special way of teaching design within the studio environment. Studios are working places where students expend long hours, sometimes over night, developing their academic projects with professors and other students, sometimes creating a real learning environment, a sense of community, long-term relations and lasting friendship, but some other times studios are places of personal sacrifice, punishing critiques and frustration.

The creation of a positive and respectful learning and working environment within the studio has been part of Wentworth policy since 2004, but a written policy is not enough, unless there is a natural individual and collective agreement among those involved to make it work. More than a policy document, studio culture at Wentworth is a set of values, a prosperous environment within which the academic and civic growth of the students and faculty occurs.

The word “culture” comes from cultivation. As in agri-culture, Wentworth studio culture contains four complementary aspects regarding the different elements and the type of relation within the studio: preparation, planting, growing and harvesting. While there are aspects of our culture that are common and shared among many people, there are also particular characteristics of a culture that are unique to individual communities. In the same way, architectural studio culture at Wentworth has elements that are shared with other schools of architecture, but it also has components that are unique to its particular environment, location, capabilities and identity.