Abstract:

Due to the recent economic changes and challenges, the different productive activities, as well as university degrees, are changing in most of the European countries as well as in Spain. Nowadays, there is increased demand for professional specialisation in building retrofit. In contrast with projects on new buildings, works in this area focused on two main aspects: on the one hand, the accurate analysis of the building, and on the other hand the intervention proposal.

Consequently, a wide range of analytical skills needs to be acquired while training. Retrofitting also involves analysing, putting forward and comparing different intervention options. These tasks are usually very hard and they take up a large amount of human and material resources, especially for old or national heritage buildings. Specialised professional teams must often carry out these projects and works.

It is therefore quite hard to transfer the main aspects of the professional practice of building refurbishment to university academic learning. The huge range of possibilities generally involved a hard work, thus projects tend to be carried out without the necessary accurate technical analysis or preparation. For these reasons, the introduction of new learning techniques into the classroom and into coursework is crucial.

A very useful technique can be found in building analysis and refurbishment workshops using the jigsaw classroom technique (Aronson 1978), which can be specifically adapted to these tasks. According to this technique, students are divided into small study groups with different responsibilities, and different areas or parts of the building are assigned to each team.

After the visits or data collection sessions, students share information, their analysis, interpretations and different points of view on possible solutions. The students carry out the work in different groups, collecting the essential information. After that, they make a diagnosis and the first proposal on possible interventions.

This method leads to active interaction among students. They collect and review the information through general and partial approaches that are discussed in the different groups. In this way, they solve the issues underlined while studying the different parts or areas of the building. These parts of the building are clearly interconnected; hence it is vital to carry out an analysis and synthesis between the teams.

This methodology diverges from the widely used static teamwork because conclusions are reached after several joint assessments. The results obtained from this experience show how students’ training can be enriched, as they generally demonstrate a stronger will to collaborate and teamwork is encouraged. Finally, the comparison and assessment of various proposals or results acknowledge the different possible approaches to the problem and all divergent solutions, thus promoting an open and creative attitude.

Keywords:

Jigsaw classroom technique, building retrofit workshops, refurbishment training projects.