Dieses Kapitel vertieft sich in die transformative Kraft einer schlagkräftigen architektonischen Designausbildung und konzentriert sich dabei auf eine Längsschnittstudie des My Bamboo-Projekts. Das Projekt, das 2022 begonnen wurde, umfasst Architekturstudenten des ersten Jahrgangs, die ausgewachsene Bambusstrukturen entwerfen und bauen, um lebendige, sozial integrative städtische Grünflächen zu schaffen. Dieser praktische Ansatz, der auf dem pädagogischen Rahmen des Learning by doing und des zweckbestimmten Lernens beruht, ermutigt die Schüler, sich mit ihrer Umwelt auseinanderzusetzen und bürgerschaftliche Verantwortung zu fördern. Das Projekt wurde erfolgreich in verschiedenen Gemeinden durchgeführt, einschließlich städtischer Bauernhöfe und Jugendgemeinschaften mit besonderen Bedürfnissen, was seine Replizierbarkeit und Skalierbarkeit unter Beweis stellt. Das Kapitel untersucht auch die Abstimmung derartiger Bildungsinitiativen mit den Zielen nachhaltiger Entwicklung (SDGs) der Vereinten Nationen und den Wandel hin zu zielgerichteter Bildung. Es beleuchtet die Herausforderungen und Erfolge, die dabei erreicht wurden, und bietet wertvolle Einblicke in die Umsetzung wirkungsorientierten Lernens. Die Ergebnisse von Studierendenbefragungen und akademischen Reflexionen unterstreichen die positiven Auswirkungen auf das Engagement der Studenten und den Beitrag der Gemeinden, was überzeugende Argumente für die Integration von Design-Building-Projekten in die architektonische Ausbildung liefert. Das Kapitel schließt mit Empfehlungen zur Verbesserung der Nachhaltigkeit und des Erfolgs derartiger Projekte und betont die Notwendigkeit robuster Governance-Modelle und strategischer Partnerschaften.
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Diese Zusammenfassung des Fachinhalts wurde mit Hilfe von KI generiert.
Abstract
While many architectural design curricula have been framed within real-life hypothetical contexts, there has been an emerging trend towards design-build projects within or outside of the formal curriculum. This paper presents a longitudinal case study of a design-build project undertaken by Year 1 architecture students in a Malaysian private university which started from 2022. Framed within the purpose learning educational philosophy, this project is an Urban Placemaking project for suburban community farms involving the local council, communities, and approximately 100 students from Year 1 architecture design studio. As new students of architecture, the students were involved in designing and building 5–6 real life bamboo structures within suburban community farms. Placemaking is not a single-disciplined approach. In the My Bamboo project, architecture students collaborated with students from mass communication, events, and marketing. The project targets neighborhoods and places in need of improvement and works with them to create or re-create “places”. Supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG) to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, this urban placemaking project advocates for socially inclusive and accessible urban spaces to build a strong sense of belonging and community spirit, and to improve neighbours’ wellbeing. Adopting survey and reflective practice, the findings suggest the changing role of the educator in curating an urban placemaking project within the curricular. Despite myriad of challenges, students were found to be highly engaged in impact-driven community-based projects realizing that even a year 1 student can play an active role in place creation. In addition, the multidisciplinary approach to placemaking reinforces the blurring of boundaries between disciplines, emphasizing that the creation of places is a collaborative act.
1 Introduction
In the last decade, alternative approaches that position architecture as a social agent of change have been explored through design-build education. Studies since 2010s have shown that such practices when applied to architectural design programmes have numerous successes and failures (Canizaro, 2012; Gjertson, 2012; Gaber, 2014; Akerman, 2017).
The call for educational transformation is also seen through the alignment of tertiary education to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Education, research and innovation are essential in sustainable development, making universities key contributors to achieving the goals. The impact of SDGs towards education has been disseminated through SDG Best Practices that featured 25 best practices from higher learning institutions, and the General Guidelines for the Implementation of Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions (Galán-Muros, 2023) guiding universities to structure their approach and increase their contribution to the SDGs, transforming into more sustainable organisations.
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Parallel to this, there has been a shift towards purpose in higher education through the seminal work of Debbie Haski-Leventhal in her book The Purpose-Driven University (2020). Recent studies have emphasized the three fundamental academic missions relating to education, research and community engagement. However, the best approach which can be taken by universities remained uncertain (Hurth & Stewart, 2022; Vogt and Weber, 2020; Chankseliani and McCowan, 2021).
Responding towards the mission of social impact and sustainability, this paper presents a longitudinal case study of a design-build project, called My Bamboo, undertaken by Year 1 architecture students in a Malaysian private university which started from 2022. The project required architecture students to design and build full scale bamboo activity structures to cultivate a sense of purpose in students as a change-agent and for this, they were given the task to create vibrant and socially inclusive urban green space that will be engaging to the community.
The project, developed via the pedagogical framework of learning by doing and purpose learning, emphasizes a hands-on approach to learning, encouraging students to interact with the environment, by feeling and doing, while fostering civic responsibility through meaningful service to the community, encouraging them to explore purpose in learning and in life.
My Bamboo project contributes to the Majlis Bandaraya Subang Jaya (Subang Jaya City Council). The project has been executed since 2022 with a pilot in March 2022 (70 students) within the campus grounds, followed by August 2022 (100 students) building bamboo structures for the USJ2 Urban Farm Community, and in March 2023 (80 students) for the 3C Community Complex Urban Farm. In September 2023, the project was sited in P3KU, a special needs youth community farm whereby the student groups extended towards other disciplines involving architecture (115 students) and events management students (6 students).
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Commonly, the 5-week design-build project starts with first-hand visit and experience between students and the urban farm community to understand what it means to design and build something for a community and to address the practical realities, needs and constraints of the place that will be housing their structures. Students then receive lectures and practical demonstrations regarding working with bamboo. At the schematic design phase, students receive feedback from the bamboo expert regarding the structural integrity of their design. The developed designs are then constructed. The final phase of the project includes a half day installation of the structure on-site and a handover event. The preceding teaching process above allows the project to be repeated, scaled and is transferable every semester by enlisting different sites (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1.
Bamboo structures are designed and built in urban farms. (Photo taken in Subang Jaya, by Authors)
2 Literature Review
2.1 Learning by Doing: Design-Build Studio
Popularized by John Dewey, learning by doing is an educational philosophy emphasizing students’ engagement through hands-on, task-oriented, and social interaction approach to foster deep and meaningful learning experiences. It is often described as experiential learning. Dewey posited that knowledge is not merely passively received but actively constructed by the learner through experience. It placed significant emphasis on notions related to problem-based learning, active learning which became pedagogical tools to approach learning by doing theory. Dewey’s theory suggests an interdisciplinary curriculum to help students strengthen their problem-solving skills by viewing issues from multiple perspectives.
This philosophy is fundamentally applied in architectural design education, particularly through the pedagogical approach called Design-Build Studio (DBS). Recent studies suggested that DBS embraces learning outcomes related to solutioning to problem-based approach through practical hands-on making, and soft skills including teamwork, time management, as well as contribute to society by working on small-scale design project. Mohareb & Maassarani (2018) highlighted the importance of using the design-build method through discussing a design project case study carried out by the Master of Architecture design programme students at Beirut Arab University, who have built prototype units for refugees at 1:1 scale. Similarly, Stonorov (2018) shared 16 international community driven design-build case studies, providing insights into processes and methods of DBS. Sandness (2016) described the studio methodology, strengths and weaknesses of the Scarcity and Creativity Studio, which required students to build established in 2012 in the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
In a Malaysian case study, Ng et al. (2018) espoused a framework that can be adapted to such design-build pedagogy. The framework emphasized the inter-relationship between the academic, the curatorial support/partner, the practitioner/expert and the agent/funding. Although the roles and responsibilities overlap, there are central roles and functions for each stakeholder.
2.2 Purpose Learning Educational Philosophy
Purpose learning is a more recent phenomenon in higher education (Haski-Leventhal, 2020) while it has been discussed more actively at school level for adolescence (Damon, 2008; Damon & Malin, 2020). Haski-Leventhal (2020) referred to the notion of ‘impact purpose’: the purpose of helping others, creating a positive impact, and making a difference in someone else’s life.
According to the National Association of Independent Schools, purpose learning allows students to explore the inner self and contribute to the outer world. Stanford2025 Purpose Learning provides a good example of how purpose learning is designed. At Stanford University, through purpose learning, students declare a mission, not a major. The intent is to allow students to couple their disciplinary pursuit with the purpose that fueled it. In addition, to support purpose learning, Stanford University launches a series of Impact Labs in which faculty and students tackle global challenges through immersion. Compared with competency-based learning which could lead to a feeling of meaninglessness, purpose learning allows students to be fully engaged to learn something that is meaningful to them personally. Purpose learning also allows students to have a greater sense of agency through responding to a need in the world.
3 Methods
While there are diverse data collection undertaken for this project, this paper focusses on data collection via an impact experience student survey and reflection of academic staff leading the project. Impact experience survey was administered every semester excluding the pilot project.
The survey was adapted from the Social Impact Framework of University of Technology Sydney, adapted into the student survey as follows:
Agency to enact personal and social responsibility: This measures the student’s demonstration of emphatic decision making; critical thinking and collaborative inquiry; confidence to act (Indicators 1–3, using Likert scale of 1–5)
Change Maker-Place Maker mindset: This measures the student’s mindset on working with others to solve community problems; developing capacity to contribute to social impact; whether the project has brought about a positive change; and the satisfaction of the outcomes that benefit communities. (Indicators 4–7, using Likert scale of 1–5)
Strengths and weaknesses (Open-ended responses)
Mean analysis was used to determine student survey satisfaction and thematic analysis for the open-ended responses. Data was collected between October 2022 to November 2023 after the project completion. A total of 174 respondents completed the survey with a completion rate of 55–65% for each cohort. The breakdown is: 60 respondents (August 2022); 44 respondents (March 2023); 70 respondents (September 2023).
Concurrently, data is collected through on-going and summative reflection by the academic staff leading this project. On-going reflection is done through journaling while summative reflection is done at the end of each phase, with the input from student satisfaction survey. The reflections focus on what went well, what did not, the challenges faced and the critical success factors, including the adjustments made through the various stages. The data were then analysed using thematic analysis, forming the key themes on critical lessons learnt to provide students an impact-driven learning experience.
4 Findings
4.1 Findings from Student Survey
Table 1 below reports the results from the student survey.
Table 1.
Table showing mean score from student survey.
Dimensions/Mean
1 Empathetic decision making
2 Critical thinking and collaborative inquiry
3 Confidence to act
4 Work with other to solve community problems
5 Develop capacity to contribute to social impact
6 Brought positive change to people/place
7 Satisfied with outcomes benefitting community
08/22
4.4
4.4
4.2
4.4
4.3
4.3
4.5
03/23
4.0
4.2
4.2
4.4
4.4
4.3
4.7
09/23
4.1
4.1
4.1
4.2
4.2
4.0
4.4
Comparing the results by semester, the results shown for the 08/22 semester ranged from 4.2–4.5, for the 03/23 semester ranged from 4.0–4.7 and 04/23 semester ranged from 4.0–4.4. The overall rating observed a slightly lower score which may possibly be due to the increased student numbers, and due to the incorporation of other disciplines such as events management, marketing and mass communication as part of the larger My Bamboo project under the Impact Lab. Inconsistent and large class size also posed a challenge to attaining a meaningful engagement and student satisfaction.
The results showed the highest mean every semester in terms of students being satisfied with the outcomes benefitting community (indicator 7) ranging from 4.4–4.7. On the contrary, the confidence to act remained the lowest mean across the semesters hovering within a small range of 4.1–4.2. The other indicators showed a range between 4.0–4.4. This may be due to the nature of Semester 1 students who just joined the architecture course and may not have been exposed to training which builds their confidence to act.
The open-ended responses indicated three key themes associated with “communication”, “collaboration” and “contribution”. Other themes emerging are related to problem solving and critical thinking skills (30%) and the practical skills of handling and building with bamboo (50%).
70% of responses indicated teamwork being the most challenging, providing specific challenges involving time and people management skills involving cooperation with teammates during the process of the project.
70% of responses also suggested communication being difficult. Communicate ideas and problem solving within the group. More than 80% of responses implied that students valued the contribution they delivered to the community. There is a sense of motivation and purpose arising from the open-ended remarks made.
4.2 Findings from Academic’s Reflection
Four themes emerged through the academic’s reflection: curriculum, role of educator, multidisciplinary approach and institutional priorities. Firstly, the Impact Project mediated between the Impact Lab and the module. As such, there is a shift from typical classroom teaching and learning to experiential learning in the real-world context. Associatively, the alignment of impact project to the module also saw a perceived increase in student learning time due to the workload of students. The challenges are due to integrating community engagement time into the teaching and learning activities, the project setting up/event and the desire to ensure quality of outcomes delivered by students to the real-world context. A balance needs to be achieved between managing students’ workload and timelines, the outcomes, and their satisfaction with the learning experience.
Secondly, the alignment of the student assessment to the impact project within the Impact Labs further extends the role of the academics to be project managers who are responsible to ensure the successful delivery of the project to the beneficiary and partner. Specifically, this includes managing risks associated to the quality of student outcomes and its relation to the desired impact; managing risks associated to budgetary requirements by setting limitations on projects; and managing risks associated to delivery of project in a timely manner.
Thirdly, the multidisciplinary approach to placemaking reinforces the blurring of boundaries between disciplines, emphasising that the creation of places is a collaborative act. The integration of diverse disciplines in one project increased the desired impact for the beneficiaries. Although the value it brings is heightened, it amplified the challenges of project management between internal stakeholders in terms of timelines and outcomes alignment. This is compounded by the fact that student numbers in a module may not be the same every semester.
Fourthly, the success of the project is highly dependent on the institutional priority towards driving social impact. The opportunities for staff capacity development, recognition for staff contributions, and funding and resources support are critical. In the My Bamboo project, the Liveable Urban Communities Impact Lab played a significant role in supporting the project from the aspects on partnership establishment and stakeholder management namely with the Subang Jaya Municipality and the benefitted communities, provision of communication channels through the Impact Lab Website and diverse forms of media outputs, and allocated financial support and resources for the project. The academic leadership of the My Bamboo project throughout these 2 years has been recognised through the EMAS award and was also a shortlisted entry for the QS Reimagining Education 2023 Awards. The creation of a Teaching and Learning Conference in 2024 also provides a platform to build staff capacity and to provide channels for presentation and research publications.
5 Conclusion
The longitudinal study of the My Bamboo project indicated positive student engagement towards their learning and contribution to society. The consistency, replicability, and scalability seen in this project showed the potential for application in diverse settings and contexts.
While such initiative is viewed as a positive gesture in education of the present and the future, the success and sustainability of the projects remains the central challenges to the academic team. Aligning the projects to funding opportunities and exploring the different dynamics and ways to address challenges are significations recommendations for improvements of such projects. In addition, due to the diversity of contexts and conditions by which impact projects can be executed in the curriculum, it is important for institutions to develop a model that is robust, practical yet flexible to allow for clarity in governance, replicability, and at the same time autonomy in project execution. Also, it is worthwhile to invest in-depth effort in a single community covering diverse aspects across a period of time and to establish strategic and meaningful partnerships with organisations to ensure projects pipeline.
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