Design Making: A study of architectural sites, state transitions, and learning

Abstract

The aim of this study is to support the design of academic maker spaces. Observations are made of a make-based introduction to design course for first year university students. Activity state transitions, architectural sites, learning outcomes and their relationships are recorded. A Markov chain, state transition modelling approach is used to capture the sequences of activities undergone by 329 student-designer participants during the prototyping segment of the design course. Several field surveys were conducted along with site analysis to support the study. The first survey identifies key features students look for in the architectural design and affordance of maker spaces. Then key sites used in the course are evaluated for these features. Finally, a pre- and post- survey was implemented to determine correlations between site, activity, and learning outcome. Reported results include: a finite state machine (or probabilistic model of student making activity state transitions); simplified architectural site analyses of key facilities; preferences for site based on activity; and lastly observed correlations between activities, sites and learning outcomes.