Students’ difficulties and remedies with the structural design for their final master project

ABSTRACT What difficulties do architecture students encounter in the structural design for their final master project? How do they address these difficulties? This paper presents the topic and focuses on these two research questions by examining the students’ experience, using thematic analysis with a qualitative approach. We obtained the data through surveys administered to architecture students during their final master project. The results show 11 categories of students’ difficulties in designing the structure. The five most frequent are integration between structure and architecture, pre-sizing, long spans, complex geometries and floor systems. To deal with their difficulties, the students employed seven strategies, which we have grouped into three components: documentary, social and experimental. We found that the final master project students participating in our study possessed and practiced the following skills: self-directed learning, constructive investigation with problem-solving skills and positive social interaction. This study can help instructors understand the difficulties faced by the students learning structural design in the context of real world, authentic projects. Our findings confirm the positive effects of social learning, analogical thinking and design alternatives for structural design education.