Abstract:

Introducing first-year students to the basic principles of architectural design is the main goal of the teachers from the Architectural Design Studio of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning in Cluj-Napoca. Guiding students from various backgrounds and different experience in acquiring the necessary skills for designing small buildings requires a lot of involvement in designing the right exercises, observing the student answers towards the assignments and also in evaluating and interpreting their results. This is the reason why the studio activity has been a constant experiment in the last years, and continues to be so in the search for the best approach in teaching design principles. In the 2023/2024 academic year, one particular exercise has helped us greatly in creating a smooth but interesting beginning of the teaching process. The students were taught how to observe the relation between people and the spaces they use, and were asked to identify and photograph places and persons while going on a walk to the town center. The article presents the process of designing the exercise, focusing on the relation between the objectives, the means of reaching them and the students´ results and feedback.

Keywords:

Architecture, design, teaching, beginning, education, experiment, observation.