Integrating critical and rhetorical writing in the beginning architecture studio
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abstract
Students entering a design studio are willing and capable learners, but they are often unable to transfer things learned from one context to another. Just as we teach the technical know-how necessary for making things in the studio, should we not also teach the critical and, it is argued, ethical knowledge required for transferring knowledge between learning contexts? This chapter proposes that the most robust mechanism for developing this ability already exists in a students natural language and that prompting students to improve their ability to manipulate language through writing provides a concrete opportunity to abstract and transfer learning throughout design education. Exploring this through the example of an architectural design studio, this chapter rebuffs the commonplace arguments against requiring writing in the design studio and then describes an approach for integrating writing into curriculum development. Finally, this chapter links this approach to the preservation of humanism in design education.
