Abstract:

Ambitious students of architecture very often participate in architectural competitions and also in competitions specifically designed for students. They are motivated to invest their free time to test their design abilities in competition with others and solve tasks that are not directly associated with their school assignments. Student competitions simulate practice. Architects in practice compete to get a contract, so acquiring skills to compete is very beneficial. When participation in student architectural competitions is part of the education process and when it is involved in design studios it could increase the motivation of students. However, it could be difficult to incorporate the aim of participation in the competition into the frame of the design studio and reconcile the requirements of the competition with the requirements of the studio. In this paper, we evaluate the experience with urban design studio assignments linked to student competitions. The main obstacles to overcome were the differences between the requirements for fulfilling the competition conditions and for fulfilling the design studio syllabi and the differences in the time frames set by competitions and the timetable of the semester.

Keywords:

Design studio, student motivation, architectural competitions, student success.