The Death of the Desk Crit

Abstract

This paper describes three alternative architectural studio teaching models taught by the authors at the University of Minnesota and at Stanford University. The three models attempt to build independent and collaborative capacity in students and to emphasize iterative components of the design process. Collectively, the models reflect the authors’ shared conviction that studio education is quite pliable and available to a wide variety of changes in approach and methods.The three models discussed in this paper are the Harkness model, the Exchanges in the Thick Middle and Shifting Allegiances. The Harkness model was implemented and tested in early undergraduate studios at Stanford University. Exchanges in the Thick Middle and the Shifting Allegiances studios, studio pedagogy based in play frameworks of “movement, change, alternation, succession, association and separations” (Srivastava and Christenson 2018), have been tested at the University of Minnesota and North Dakota State University in both undergraduate and graduate studios. All three models are briefly introduced in this paper, followed by a description of the typical day and a typical review in the studios. The conclusions section briefly outlines the overlaps and differences in the three models.