74. Foundation Workshops as Enrichers of Architectural Design Studios

According to Geoffery Broadbent, a noted architectural theorist, the core skill of an architect is visualization, i.e., the ability to visualize a building in three dimensions in response to a given site and a brief. One of the input tools which helps the student to visualize is model making (physical). The course on model making, which is offered by almost all schools of architecture in India, involves imparting the techniques of making models with different materials like wood, paper boards, Styrofoam, plastics, etc. Having learnt these techniques, the student makes models in the course of Architectural Design, which runs from the first semester right up to the final one. The models that are made in Architectural Design studios are of two types, viz. study models and presentation models. Study models are used to refine the building design, whereas presentation model represent the final design. As an experiment, this course was replaced by ‘Foundation Workshop’ in a School of Architecture, by the two authors from 2015 to 2020. The intent was to broaden the scope of the course on ‘Model Making,’ from a skill-based pedagogy to a pedagogy which enriches the core course of Architectural Design, in a profound manner. The ‘Foundation Workshop’ course imparts the skills of workmanship, exploration, lateral thinking, and systems thinking besides the techniques of making models. The paper is a detailed account of the approaches and learnings from this experiment.