There is a complexity surrounding the significant role that buildings play in shaping how we live and experience life, I aim for clarity in my language (whether written into briefs or in individual conversations) in order to support these conversations with students. The studio invites students to consider less about what a building is and more about what it does, in order to focus thinking towards particular uses and conditions of occupancy.

It is important that students develop skills of detailed observation, investigation, research and thoughtfulness about place and people (in order to develop a position of being informed), from which they can generate specificity in their drawings and models.

Students are asked to maintain logbooks which are a visual record of their research journey through the year. Studio 06 encourages students to produce predominantly by hand and through models and made objects in order to force this level of engagement. The briefs are written to encourage students, through their own research, to generate a detailed reading of territory through the eyes of another, thereby developing a key design skill about understanding place from ‘another’s perspective’.

There is also value in outcomes which are not planned or designed (this comes from being in the real practice of architecture). Often unintended things happen in creative processes. The studio allows for this and encourages students to enjoy working with creative freedom as they work through the iterative design process. I value the approach that says “don’t think too much before doing, but don’t do too much without reflecting.” (Hamdi, 2012)