Who is designing for whom? A critical design studio approach

Abstract

Studio studies can easily be defined as the cornerstone of the discipline in departments giving architectural education. Although the educational process differs in educational institutions and among the educators, its main purpose is always to give the best experience on design process to the students and to bring together different space designs and functions with certain criteria. Although it is often stated to the contrary, it is generally difficult to get the necessary support from the social sciences in studio work. For students, considering the design with sociological data and creating a concept can be perceived as a waste of time, since the user experience cannot be observed in a project that will not be implemented in the real life and it will often create differences that cannot be measured. Dealing with form, color, and material instead can help impress teachers and other students in the studio much more easily. Students often act pragmatically and choose the method that promises them a higher score in a shorter way, as creating a charming product in studio will seem more powerful while a deep research on the sociologic and ecologic background cannot reflect themselves easily on a render. Although very different user profiles were determined for the same area at the beginning of the design process, it may cause that the resulting products cannot create enough characteristic differences in the end. The aim of this research is to examine whether the projects differ in terms of functionality regarding their different user profiles determined by the students, based on the studio work of Karadeniz Technical University, Department of Landscape Architecture within the scope of Environmental Design and Project II course. As a result of the examination, it has been determined that although the designer and customer profile are different, the morphological differences in designs are not perceived very easily, which means the methodology in the studios should be examined again.