NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE TEACHING OF ARCHITECTURAL CONSTRUCTION: FROM THE BLACKBOARD TO THE COMPUTER

Learning to construct and design what will be built means learning to connect parts, functions and processes of the constructive reality through the use of materials, elements and construction systems with the purpose of materialising the idea that all architectonic project comprises. To this end, the analysis of each construction detail must be undertaken with the materials and elements required for its solution, and taking into account the different architectonic and constructive situations involved.
Construction I is one of the firsts subjects where the student learns construction in detail. For the past few academic years and in order to properly guide the learning of architecture, the student´s participation in practical lessons has been implemented. This means an active learning based on the student´s own reasoning when is faced to each of the given cases in a responsible, direct and open way.
The traditional model of drawing in two dimensions on the blackboard does not meet with the educational purpose required because of the difficulty to understand the real three-dimensional object resulting from a long process throughout time where different phases need to be resolved before continuing with the next steps.
Practical lessons proposed to the students are carried out in class and drawn on the blackboard (traditional method). Drawings are both in two dimensions and in perspective so that the student obtains a spatial understanding of the object we want to design and materialise.
With the implementation of new computer technologies we achieve new didactic methods which facilitate this understanding. The use of PowerPoint, three-dimensional presentations, virtual models, etc.. enables the explanation of the construction process of an element step by step and in relation to the whole architectonic problem given, so that the student gains a real understanding modelised of the construction fact. This understanding is even more efficient when dealing with non-traditional construction models where the comprehension is more difficult.
When applying new technologies, the biggest advantage and greater improvement obtained is the possibility to show and explain the student in a virtual way the process of materialising throughout time (the fourth dimension) of the shapes and structures which are the essence of Architecture.
With this method based on computer technologies for the active construction learning, the student has a real and global understanding of the construction fact and also achieves the skills required for professional life: a complete spatial understanding, a greater interest for the construction reality, the overcoming of the abstraction when studying details separated from the real context, and an approach to the reality of shapes, materials, dimensions, techniques and textures, thus obtaining the creative synthesis between the model designed and its materiality.