Analyzing Material Workshop Developing Role in Qualified Architectural Education

Many scholars in the field of architecture deem that a proper interaction between studio and classroom is one of the influential factors on the quality of architectural education. The present research has studied the status and properties of materials workshop in Iranian and international prestigious architectural schools through an analytical survey on the development of this workshop and the effect of its quantitative and qualitative features in architectural education. In this article, the program of various Iranian and foreign universities for building materials course has been compared in the fields of presentation methods, the main facilities, side programs, and topics of the course by interviewing the lectures of this course of architecture.
Despite the existing scheme in some local architectural schools for elimination or merger the facilities and equipment of materials workshops, the studies of this research about the approaches of presenting the courses of building materials, and construction and materials workshops for teaching architecture in 21 schools of architecture in big Iranian and foreign universities have asserted that the trend in big and reputable international universities is the development of side-programs in materials workshops and the consolidation and extension of technological facilities and equipment in these studios. Based on worldwide experiences of material courses in architecture, the studies of this research figured out the link between the quality assurance of architectural education and maintaining the educational quality of fundamental modules by demonstrating the significance of adherence to studio training of practical courses and the attention to the importance of learning by doing for students specifically in basic units of architecture. Thus, the establishment and development of construction and materials workshop is one of the common necessities of improving the educational quality in architectural schools.
The survey of findings in this research specifies that the presence of construction and materials workshop is one of the requirements of an architectural school and consequently, of appropriate training of architecture. Regarding the changing nature of technology and variation rate and alternations of new materials, the instruction of this field of architecture requires the establishment of a creative process in revolutionizing context of the materials workshop infrastructure. Therefore, a structure for physical and functional planning of materials workshop is provided in this article in order to present the course of building materials in synchronization with alternations of architectural technologies. In this article, a four-part framework is provided for development of this workshop by surveying the pedagogical experiences and approaches of different architectural schools in the world. In this framework, the minimum required equipment and facilities for the realization of the course goals is proposed by introducing two functional dimensions of this workshop including material aspect (traditional and modern) and construction process aspect (form-creation and creating the function). Moreover, a framework for the preparation of developmental and updating plans of construction and materials studio is purveyed by studying the physical facilities and existing equipment in the case studies of this research. The utilization of this structure can reinforce students' motivation and relationship with the environment of architectural school and enhance the quality of architectural training.