DEVELOPING TEACHING TOOLS FOR SKETCHING –A CASE STUDY

Last decades may be considered as the breaking points in the development of architectural profession. The ways and means for designing buildings seem to change due to the new materials, technologies and production methods. Among these, use of computers as a drafting and design tool in the production of projects and buildings seems to accelerate this change. Today in the information age, influence of computer technology on the end product is influential which leads to changes in the design studio education as well. Traditionaly students were taught to draft their projects at the end of the design. Then computers were used as a drafting tool. Now computers are used both for design and production of the project. Although computers’ dominance is influential in the design process, sketching is still one of the important skills students need to develop and utilize during the design process in the schools of architecture in many schools.

Some students are good in sketching without a formal education, others need to develop this skill in schools. Sketching acts like a thinking tool in design, that is why students especially in the first stages of design utilize sketching to develop their design ideas. Sketching is at the same time a tool for communication among students and tutors in the design studio. Developing strategies for teaching sketching is important considering its vast use among designers and students of design and architecture.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the teaching tools for sketching that we developed and implemented on a group of architecture students who took sketching as an elective course. The students were in their 1st to3rd year in the pursuit of their architecture education. We utilized cognitive and metacognitive tools to enchance the students self regulation in teaching sketching. This paper discusses the scope, process and results of that project.