IMPACT OF VISUAL ART TO ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO: STUDENT EXPERIENCE OF LOWER AND UPPER CLASSES

Art history has spanned back to the cave painting age when man had conceived the ability to create imagination, concepts and ideas which are put on mediums. This is termed virtual art. Over the times, the visualization of art had evolved from the traditional art to contemporary art. Virtual art comprises of painting, drawing, sculpture, design, photography, film making, literature, crafts, ceramics and architecture and there has been a direct link between virtual art and architecture, especially in the acquisition of these skills. Training in virtual art has originally been through apprenticeship just as architecture training has originally been by mentorship, both are now been taught at tertiary institutions.

Virtual art is being taken as a course or an elective in schools of architecture in Nigeria. This study takes the case study of 100 and 200 level students of Covenant University, Nigeria. It is assumed that the knowledge acquired in virtual art would help students in architectural design. However, how has this translated to students’ scores in design and design output? Also, the study investigates how well the students have been impacted with virtual art knowledge to help them in design. Data for this study is by primary and secondary data. This is done by examining the impact of virtual art as a course on student results in architectural design. This is done by examining students at lower class of 100 levels and the same set of students’ results in 200 levels in design and in virtual art. Questionnaire was administered to students and the results of scores of the student are considered in the study. Finding shows that the skills acquired in virtual art and the knowledge has helped the student in drafting, creativity, which had brought out original design forms. The similarities between virtual art and architecture in terms of background, training and presentation should be explored by schools of architecture to produced better architects.