Examining Users’ Preferences of Furniture Arrangements in Relation to Experiential Learning Activities in Architectural Design Studios, with Reference to Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

Architectural education is a complex discipline that needs specific spatial requirements. Architectural design studio is the backbone of architectural education. For that the setting of the studio affects students’ productivity, it should suit the learning process and activities to help students. Yet, many studios follow the traditional grid setting. The experiential learning cycle developed by Kolb in 1984 is known to be an effective educational strategy in architecture. It consists of four stages, which are: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation that balance between input and output data through 18 learning activities. In order to fully realize the requirements of the experiential learning cycle, there is spatial requirements, and seating arrangement. Specifically, should be taken into consideration. There are five arrangements that are known for organization which are centralized/u-shaped, linear, radial, clustered, and grid arrangements. The linear arrangement was excluded from the study as it is not applicable in design studio. The aim of the study is to investigate the preferable seating arrangement for each studio activity to best realize the goals of architectural/ experiential education. The study was carried out at four universities in Cairo, Egypt. An online survey was completed by 322 participants from 3rd, 4th, and 5th year undergraduate students and staff members. The results were analyzed quantitatively using (IBM SPSS) Statistical Package for Social Science 28 software. The findings suggest that the seating arrangement can be easily changed to suit the users’ needs that centralized/u-shaped arrangement is best for eight activities, namely reading, giving examples, large group discussion, thought questions, logical analyses, analogies, case study analyses, analyses and critiques. Radial arrangement best fits four activities: problem set, games/ role playing, small group discussion, and brainstorming. Clustered arrangement showed to be best for physical model making and reflecting on design. At last, grid arrangement was suitable for trigger videos, journals, lectures, and computer simulation activities. It is hoped that the findings of this study may help architecture educators and administrators take more informed decisions regarding the seating arrangement in architectural design studios, in relation to different learning activities towards realizing more desirable outcomes. Keywords Architectural design studio, Experiential learning, Kolb’s learning cycle, Seating arrangements