Ubiquitous Digital Repositories In the Design Studio A Case study

Abstract

The paper investigates the usability and effect of a ubiquitous digital repository in the architectural design process. Acknowledging the post-digital era where students work with diverse media either digital or analogue, the project explores the suitability of a digital log in augmenting conceptual thinking, feedback provision and intellectual exchange by means of a studio in an architectural undergraduate course. Students integrate a digital log into their workflow resolving a design task of an architectural studio. A server-based repository serves as students' individual archive as well as a share-point for peer-students' informal exchange and tutors' feedback. The conclusion of the study is that sketching and organization habits from the analog media the students have learned persist even with a more digitally inclined generation. The use of digital tools that obliterate the analog-digital division, holding the best of both worlds are still subject to the constraints of timely introduction in the curriculum, cultural resistance in terms of organization of a project and more so void of experimentation in their use by students.