The Design Studio In Selected Schools Of Architecture In Southwest Nigeria: A Study Of Pedagogy, Culture And Environment

ABSTRACT

The concerns for sustainability in architectural education have become the subjects of global discussion which has prompted the stakeholders into researches, debates, negotiations, declarations and policy formulation in Nigeria and other parts of the world. The curriculum of architectural design studio has been based on design studio model which focuses on “learning by doing”. In the course of advancement for the best practices, some revolutionary practices evolved over time as a reaction to the criticism against traditional practices in architectural design studio pedagogy, culture and environment. Although, several revolutionary practices may have been developed and employed by different design studio teachers across the schools, but little or no empirical documentation was made in the time past. This study, therefore, critically examined the architectural design studio in some selected schools of architecture in Nigeria in order to describe its characteristics in relation to pedagogy, culture and environment. The research methodology employed a survey research design strategy; the primary data were sourced by the use of questionnaires, observations, focus group, and oral interviews. The secondary data was sourced from the literature, archives, government reports and records. Also, the sampling frame consisted of the design studios, students and teachers in the selected design studios; the unit of analysis was obtained for the teachers and students, design studios of year three (3), four (4) and masters classes (300,400 or 500 and M.Sc. Classes). A multi-stage stratified purposive sampling technique was adopted. Questionnaire responses were analysed using SPSS while content analysis was used for the interviews and observations. Some findings among many others, showed that, for teachers, the sex distribution was 69.4% male, 30.6% female; with highest proportion of female teachers in CU (38.9%). And for students across the selected schools, the percentages of sex distribution were 69.1% male and 30.9% female. However, in the revolutionary pedagogic models, generally across the four schools, the dominant pedagogic practice was found in participatory model as O.A.U was found with most dominant characteristics than the three other schools. Both the CU teachers and students had dominant characteristics in Analogical model, and LAUTECH with least characteristics of these models. Most of these investigated schools have some inadequacies; ranging from deficiencies in privacy and security, protection of workspace and equipment to studio building services. Also, majority of the respondents felt inadequate with design studio culture life in the selected studios. The study found significant differences in socio-economic characteristics of students and teachers, personality characteristics of students and teachers in the different dimensions of orientation and perception to design studios. The different levels of significant indices were found for pedagogic practices, culture and environment across the four schools. The findings also show the most significant predictors of pedagogy in three hierarchical orders: the first order contained (i) the Demystification of studio culture (ii) Motivational Factors and (iii) studio Culture ethics and Code of conduct. The second order was the mean adequacies for lighting (Beta Value=.217, F-Value=53, 434, df=2 and significant Value= .000), auxiliary facilities (Beta Value=-.130, F-Value=29.227, df=2and significant value= .000), studio building services (Beta Value=-.113, F-Value=17.000,df=5,and significant Value=.000) and the third order was REGR factor score 6 for analysis 1(Beta Value=.101, F-Value=26.334, df=2, and significant value=.000), REGR factor score 7 for analysis 1(Beta Value=.091, F-Value=18.275, df=2 and significant Value=.000) and REGR factor score 5 for analysis 1(Beta Value=.077, F-Value=13.625,df=1 and significant value=.000). This study revealed that the different design studio practices employed in the four selected schools had performed differently in terms of teachers and students’ personality characteristics, pedagogic practices, culture, and environments. The parametric measures evolved in these findings can be used as a valid fundamental basis in the empirical analysis of inquiries perquisites to the architectural epistemology.