THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONCEPTS DURING PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION : A SURVEY OF ARCHITECTURAL STUDENTS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONCEPTS IN THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Abstract

Adapting from the procedure carried out by Wilson & Canter (1990), the development of architectural concepts during professional education in the Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore is examined using the Multiple Sorting Procedure. 85 students in each of five years of architectural training were asked to sort 25 examples of contemporary architecture according to 3 separate sorting tasks with each task having particular objectives. Firstly a free sort to investigate what architecture is to the students and how these ideas develop over the years. Second is a preference sort to solicit what are the important concepts of architecture to the students and lastly is a sustainability sort which seeks to find out what the ideas of sustainability are and what about sustainability is important. Comparisons are done not only between individual years but also between the Design Track and DTS Track. Results from the sorts are converted to graphs and MDS plots for analysis. The descriptions for the students’ sorts can be related to a common set of constructs. Results show that concepts develop from year to year and are also different between the Design Track and the DTS Track. Results also reveal the ideas that students value is also different from what they learn. From the results, it is suggested that architectural education do influence ideas through the modules taken and the Design studio influences the students’ value judgements of the qualities of the buildings. Buildings are also sorted based according to their qualities and not just limited to style suggesting that new technology, new construction methods, new building materials have transformed the way we look at architecture.