Importance and Role of Live Projects in Architectural Education Using a Descriptive and Analytical Approach

The idea of live projects began in the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom in the 1950s, because fresh graduates never dealt with live projects and clients and had hug problems in adapting themselves to the labor market (B​r​o​w​n​,​ ​2​0​1​2). Then the idea appeared in the academic circles in universities of Iraq because students did not put their learnt knowledge into any practical application. Most design studios did not adopt a comprehensive approach to architectural education to enhance design awareness in many aspects, such as social, cultural and environmental aspects, cooperation and teamwork, criticism, implementation methods and so on, and architecture schools did not adequately prepare students for their future work, thus making many students generally suffer from a lack of knowledge and professional practice in the labor market. Therefore, it is urgent to increase the awareness of students through realistic educational practices and activities, which take into account these design aspects. This study aimed to find educational methods to prepare experienced architects to easily go to the labor market, guide their design thinking towards reality, know how to deal with clients and take into account user requirements, budgets and so on.

Real projects were designed to make students deal with real clients, thus preparing them better for their professional practice. Live projects included experiential learning, in which learners had direct contact with the facts being studied and learned by experience or by putting all theoretical methods in action, and were exposed in some way to the limitations that they may encounter outside of academic circles. It was an opportunity to develop complex teaching methods to enrich architectural education and professional practice.

A descriptive and analytical approach was adopted, by reviewing previous studies, proposing a vocabulary for the necessary skills of students, and measuring them using live projects similar to international experiences. Questionnaires were provided for students, which included questions about the skills acquired in real projects before and after experiment, to get results. The study sample was a group of nine senior students from the University of Mosul, divided to two teams. The results indicated that the students acquired many important skills and practical knowledge during the experiment, which they did not acquire in traditional design studio projects. To sum up, the research showed that live projects were complementary to the design studio and both of them were equally important.

A live project is defined as a type of design project, where the work environment for students has changed from a design studio to a live workplace, which differs from a typical studio project in its interaction with real clients or users. The live project consists of negotiating a briefing, schedule, budget, and product between the client and the educational institution, which helped students develop many skills, such as teamwork, communication skills, reporting, negotiation, marketing, dealing with emergencies, and promoting on social media (H​a​r​r​i​e​t​ ​&​a​m​p​;​ ​W​i​d​d​e​r​,​ ​2​0​1​4; S​a​r​a​,​ ​2​0​1​1). A​n​d​e​r​s​o​n​ ​(​2​0​1​7​) also defined live projects as a bridge to education based on research, where related teachers were interested in the learning process itself, instead of the final product. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the live projects, which include the needs and desires of users and customers. However, it is architecturally difficult to evaluate the live projects using the standards, which are used to critique or evaluate traditional studio projects. Several studies (S​a​l​a​m​a​,​ ​2​0​1​6) (W​a​t​t​ ​&​a​m​p​;​ ​C​o​t​t​r​e​l​l​,​ ​2​0​0​6) (B​r​o​w​n​,​ ​2​0​1​2) showed that the educational model of live projects adopted the field experience method for education, where students participated in all decision-making education processes. Instead of playing the traditional student-teacher role, students identified problems and resources with the help of facilitating teachers, learned problem-solving techniques, standardized solutions and worked with facts. C​a​r​o​l​y​n​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​ ​(​2​0​1​3​) defined live projects as effective educational strategies to connect the academic world with the outside. Although live projects were important, they required great administrative resources and efforts. R​o​d​r​i​g​u​e​z​ ​(​2​0​1​7​) concluded that live project was a very common educational method in other education fields, such as business administration, law, medical specialties, media, etc. In architectural education, it was used to provide students with real and tangible design problems.

Therefore, the live project is a simulation of professional practice, which aims to expose students to real situations and problems and enables them to learn to design for real customers and users, rather than hypothetical ones. Students are concerned with the design process rather than the product. In addition, the live project enables students to develop several skills, such as marketing and promoting their work, preparing reports, negotiating, setting a schedule, observing the budget, etc. The live project may reach the construction stage.

This study aimed to address the following two research problems:

- Knowledge gap between what students have learned in the architectural design studio and what they will do in their future work in terms of design, project implementation, supervision, administrative matters, marketing, and so on.

- No clear vision to assess the importance of live projects in architectural education and the efficiency improvement of students in Iraqi universities in general, particularly the University of Mosul.

This study aimed to:

- Evaluate live projects and measure their impact on the quality improvement of architectural education and the efficiency improvement of students in Iraqi universities in general and the University of Mosul in particular.

- Study how to enable students to acquire necessary capabilities to easily enter the labor market and face difficulties in their future work.

Live projects support architectural education, increase students' competence, prepare them to enter the labor market and practice their professional skills, and reduce the lack of knowledge in the architectural design studio.

Based on the lack of knowledge in the traditional design studio and its separation from external influences, such as the client, the user, etc., the architectural colleges in the United Kingdom began to adopt the teaching method based on live projects. This study aimed to define the role of living project in architectural education, suggest better education strategies, and explore the living project as an educational process instead of the final product. After studying the live project in the context of education theory and related practical examples, it was concluded that the live project enabled students to learn and develop skills that were not possible in the academic studio, such as communication skills, writing contracts, asking questions, listening and presenting, dealing with craftsmen and people in other disciplines, linking the architecture college with the community, applying theoretical knowledge in practice, raising the students’ work to a professional level, collaborative learning, including guidance for partnerships among students, learning from other students and teamwork, increasing the motivation to develop project management, problem-solving and organization skills, developing an understanding of the construction process, learning creative design with constraints, and reducing the domination of teachers (S​a​r​a​,​ ​2​0​0​4).

This study aimed to link the academic circle with the community using many vocabularies, such as learning from others, working with the community, and solving problems. A social experiment was conducted through interconnected community projects, including reconstruction of two demolished schoolyards in Montreal of Canada. The design and construction involved approximately 100 students majoring in architecture, 50 students from elementary schools, and builders, teachers, principals, craftsmen, and parent volunteers. It was a successful social and educational experience, which made students get out of classrooms and studios isolating them from reality (R​i​c​h​a​r​d​,​ ​2​0​1​2).

This study worked on the live project method, i.e., students worked without salaries to gain experience after graduation, and aimed to verify the importance of live projects because of the large gap between architectural education and work requirements. A hypothesis was proposed that the live project developed additional skills of students compared with the traditional design studio, which prepared them for professional practice. Three case studies were included in this study, namely, a two-week studio project in Oxford with a real client, a field trip to India to build a school for communities affected by the Asian tsunami in 2004, and wing project building as a competition for extra curricula by the university. Finally, it was concluded that both the live project and the traditional design studio were equally important, and provided students with different experiences. The live projects conducted in the study did not focus on the final product but rather the design process, and evaluated the teamwork of students and their ability to negotiate and communicate with clients and convince them. Due to short duration, live projects were difficult to evaluate, because there were not clear standards for them (L​o​f​t​h​o​u​s​e​,​ ​2​0​1​3).

This study showed that traditional studio projects were becoming increasingly common in architectural education around the world, which focused on solving hypothetical design problems possibly inspired by reality. However, it was difficult for lectures or studio projects to teach necessary skills, such as dealing with clients and users, adapting to changing circumstances, working with different disciplines, negotiating, and project management, etc. This study proposed a teaching method, which focused on enhancing learning through live projects and provided support for studio-based projects. In order to develop and test this method, 15 different live projects were designed and built over a period of four years, including the participation of 170 university students, various domestic and international teachers, six sponsors from the construction industry, and 12 children institutions. The study results indicated that the traditional design studio succeeded in developing problem-solving skills to some extent. However, knowledge needed to be supplemented by experiential learning methods using live projects, which enabled students to develop skills, exposed them to different situations and perspectives, and allowed them to gain experience in solving real design problems before graduation (R​o​d​r​i​g​u​e​z​,​ ​2​0​1​7).

This study dealt with the possibility of incorporating the Virtual Design Studio (VDS) with the traditional studio and live projects. The live project was an alternative method of providing students with real and concrete design problems, which required negotiation with the client and development of a project schedule and budget. Possibility of integrating the above three methods was verified using two case studies, which were projects between the University of Los Andes in Colombia, and the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. The projects were divided into two stages. In the first stage, general concepts were built through VDS, and then proposals were developed for two weeks in the traditional studio. In the second stage, which lasted for six weeks, data was collected through questionnaires and interviews with groups of students and professors in a live project style. The study proved that students worked as a team and built confidence in their own abilities when working on a real project. In addition, live projects gave students an opportunity to interact face to face and more motivated them to work on a real problem and deal with the community, such as clients or people in other disciplines, because of participation of students from two universities. These projects also reduced bias because students were exposed to the opinions of a group of participants instead of their studio teachers only. It was believed that this study could lead to amending the curricula in countries, which did not oblige their graduates to attend training before starting to work.

It was concluded that the previous studies emphasized the importance of live projects and their role in developing the professional performance of students in architectural education, as design studios isolated students from the real world. In addition, live projects developed many skills that the students would need in their future work, such as dealing with a real problem or customer, working with various people in other disciplines, enhancing learning from others, designing with constraints, project management, and other professional skills. These studies also emphasized the importance of several skills, such as communication skills, including communication with customers, users, people in other disciplines and craftsmen, writing reports, preparing summaries, marketing, persuasion, negotiation, etc. Table 1 shows the most important skills emphasized by these studies, and Table 2 shows the most important vocabulary extracted from the theoretical framework (R​o​d​r​i​g​u​e​z​ ​e​t​ ​a​l​.​,​ ​2​0​1​8).

The study used an analytical and descriptive approach to:

- Create a theoretical framework from previous studies and extract the research vocabulary.

- Determine the study samples.

- Select a measurement tool.

- Applying the measurement tool to the samples by introducing a group of senior students to the live project experiment, similar to international experiments.

- Access to results and conclusions.

The study sample included a group of nine senior students from the University of Mosul divided to two teams, which accounted for 25% of the total senior students. Due to logistical difficulties, the samples were confined to nine students only, who volunteered to work on the project.

The method of measurement was as follows:

Experiment: The experiment was applied to the study samples by selecting a residential house project. The students were divided into two groups under the supervision of the researchers. The design of each group was client-integrated, including schemes, facades, and sections. The students were responsible for negotiating with the client, presenting, and explaining their ideas, studying the materials in the market in terms of durability, insulation, and costs, as well as knowing the types of construction systems, the pros and cons and costs. On this basis, the appropriate materials and structural system were selected in accordance with the client’s budget. In addition, the students worked as a team with the engineers in other disciplines in the office, such as civil, mechanics, electricity, etc., in order to consult on building construction and service matters. Then a questionnaire was distributed to the students, including questions before and after the experiment, as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2. The experiment was conducted in the Tanasouq Office of Engineering in Mosul for 20 days.

The results before the experiment are shown in the Table 3.

The results after conducting the experiment are shown as Table 4:

Previous studies focused on many vocabularies to develop architectural education and prepare students for professional practice. The most important vocabularies included “motivation” because, compared with traditional studio projects, live projects generated a higher degree of motivation among students, which was closely related to the participation of real clients and users and appreciation of clients for their work; “self-organization and project management” because the live project gave students an opportunity to assume responsibility by turning a typical teacher-led process to a process in which students assumed greater responsibility for project, group management, team organization, provision of resources, meeting management, and project completion on time; “learning from others and collaborative work” because teamwork was a positive element in the live project, which gave students the opportunity to learn from others and developed their ability to work in groups for their future work; “developing personal skills”, such as interaction with clients, effective communication with people involved in the design process, problem solving and strategic thinking, etc.; “preparing for professional practice, applying theoretical knowledge in practice, raising students’ work to the professional level, appreciation of students’ work, designing with restrictions, building self-confidence, giving more role to students in the educational process, professionalism, architectural criticism, providing benefit to the community” by working on non-profit projects, such as developing housing in poor rural areas, developing public squares in the city center, or building schools in remote areas, with the client usually from civil organizations and charitable societies; “social and environmental sustainability” because many live projects were built using recycled materials, wastes and local materials to reduce transportation costs, and working on the same site inspired students to use unexpected materials in the project.

As shown from Table 3 and Table 4, only 33.3% students communicated with people in other disciplines when designing in the studio, and considered material costs before the experiment, while 100% students acquired communication skills and considered the material costs after experiment. 55.6% of the students had an idea of project management before the experiment, while 100% of the students gained knowledge about project management after the experiment. 77.8% of the students had time management skills, enthusiasm, and motivation when designing in the studio, and were ready for professional practice and took into account the user's behavior and orientations in the design process, while 100% of the students acquired these skills after the experiment.

In addition, only 11% to 50% students had knowledge of material properties in terms of costs, durability, and insulation, 22.2% had no knowledge of all of the above, while the percentage ranged from 66.6% to 88.8% after the experiment, and 0% of them did not acquire any knowledge. After the experiment, 100% of the students found restrictions on the design process, the impact of budget on the final product, and the significant impact of client requirements on the design process. In addition, the students felt that the experience helped them build confidence in their abilities, and teamwork stimulated ideas by dropping their individual ideas and relying on the opinion of the majority. As for 88.8% of the students, due to the impact of customer opinion on the final product, they had to exceed the customer requirements to achieve a better product, and felt that teamwork gave more design solutions. While 77.8% of the students found that the experience helped them acquire new knowledge and skills that were not mentioned within the questions.

Live projects proved that students should be engaged with real projects, which improved their skills needed to get into more advanced projects. Live projects were not presented in the universities of Iraq previously. Although this experiment was simple, it proved the efficiency of live projects in enhancing the following skills for architectural students: Live projects gave students an opportunity to communicate with and consult people in other disciplines, such as civil, electricity, mechanics, psychology, etc.; taught students to design by taking into account the material costs and adhering to them, because the budget greatly affected the final product; taught students to consider the construction rules when designing and the conditions for obtaining a building permit; gave students an idea of project management, by making a project schedule, division of labor and etc., made them ready for professional practice and gave them a simple idea of project implementation; gave students an opportunity to learn from each other and exchange ideas, helped give more design solutions by giving up their individual ideas and relying on the opinion of the majority, gave students more design motivation and helped them build confidence in their abilities; made students consider the behavior, personality, orientations, and cultural level of the customer when designing because customer opinion greatly affected the final design and there were many restrictions on the design process; enabled students to acquire the skills of negotiating with the client, explaining ideas, and persuading others, and to learn how to criticize their colleagues in a professional manner; made students acquire the knowledge of building materials and finishes in the market in terms of insulation, quality, durability, permanence, resistance to climatic conditions, and costs; enabled students to acquire teamwork skills and communicate with the architectural team in live projects and the design studio.