FINAL ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO CRITIQUE at Temple University DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
A BIG THANKS to Professor Olaitan Awomolo for inviting me to take part in the Final Architectural Design Studio Critique at the Department of Architecture at Temple University.
I had the chance to review again some of the students I met during the mid-semester critique. At first, I didn’t know what to expect in term of project development and some of them really surprised me for the huge progression and maturity of their design process in only few months.
They took the comments we provided them previously, worked on them to be able to progress with their design to the next level.
The students continued to work not only on the space that was the focus of the first assignment (a choreographic movement through a staircase) but they also explored the movement in the whole surrounding spaces.
Their program for this design step was to set up spaces in light (and therefore also dark) in order to guide the stair user to engage in a ‘promenade’ (to move and pause, to sit, stand turn around, look up and down).
Design Criteria to be considered at this stage were visually exploring, re-enter the stair from the adjacent space/s, move up or down (or both) in order to experience the whole environment; experimenting with the action of natural light in user’s movement, and the role of natural light in guiding though the pathway; breaking through the envelope with the new promenade and contacting the outside.
Some students showed a great ability to move from abstract concept into real spaces back and forth; for other this process was more difficult, but they managed to explore the space composition and control the shapes and scales, delivering outstanding designs, nevertheless.