Research on the Influence of Nonmorphological Elements’ Cognition on Architectural Design Education in Universities: Third Year Architecture Core Studio in Special Topics “Urban Village Renovation Design”

This study focuses on the topic of “Urban Village Renovation Design” under the complex and diversified social needs in the third year of the architecture undergraduate program at Zhejiang University, China. Based on the theory and method of “situational teaching,” this study proposes a teaching framework integrating the investigation and cognition of nonmorphological elements, such as historical background, economic structure, social structure, public service, and human needs. The study aims to reveal the analysis and response of site investigation and architectural programming to social needs in the realistic context, and take nonmorphological elements as one of the important factors to promote the rationality and authenticity of architectural design, standardize the teaching process in the form of the teaching framework, and realize the teaching goal of solving social needs by design. Qualitative analyses are used to evaluate whether the proposed teaching framework achieves the expected teaching effects according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. We then use the Kirkpatrick model to quantitatively evaluate the specific effects of the framework, and the differences in the positive effects of nonmorphological elements on teaching are explored. In addition, regression analysis is used to discuss ways of obtaining nonmorphological elements. The results show that the teaching framework is a feasible method to improve students’ understanding of social problems and implement reasonable architectural programming that integrates nonmorphological elements in the architectural design course. To some extent, this teaching framework addresses the neglect of nonmorphological elements in traditional Chinese architectural design teaching, and forms an experience-based teaching methodology that can be used to guide architectural design teaching on other topics. This study is helpful in exploring the value and potential of nonmorphological elements in architectural design and provides a reference for college teachers engaged in architectural programming and design teaching.

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