Title: Product vs. process: innovative live projects and their assessment

Authors: Jan Silberberger

Addresses: Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (GTA), Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich, Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland

Abstract: Referring to data gained by means of an ethnographic study, the paper at hand provides an account of a rather particular 'real life' experiment, which a group of students conducted for their master's degree. In their 'design-build project' the student group created a temporary (interior) design for converting the ground floor of a vacant commercial property into a co-working space slash shared flat. Analysing the students' experimentation, the paper addresses the intricate relationship between innovative live projects and traditional academic examination criteria in architectural design. In doing so, the paper shows that invisible aspects of design need to be more strongly integrated into the assessment of live projects - both for ensuring the traceability of the design process as well as the quality of its outcomes.

Keywords: architectural design; live project; innovation; assessment; procedural analysis; epistemic position; mentoring.

DOI: 10.1504/JDR.2022.132059

Journal of Design Research, 2022 Vol.20 No.4, pp.318 - 329

Accepted: 25 Apr 2023
Published online: 07 Jul 2023 *

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