Teaching platform Material Workshop

The teaching of the DARCH is internationally characterised by a large emphasis on construction design classes in the curriculum. The influence of the material and its processing on the architectural expression is receiving more and more attention. With the help of a digital teaching platform, this project is intended to enrich the experimental classes in the areas of materials and construction, accompany the learning process and ensure the acquisition of knowledge as well as its availability to others.
The Material Workshop platform is intended to support the public Material Collection of the D-ARCH, build on existing comprehensive platforms, such as the transdisciplinary Material-Archive and the ETH project Digitale Diathek (SARI Swiss Art Research Infrastructure), and act as a link. Procedural, practically experienced building knowledge supplements the classical encyclopaedic databases and reference sources.
The correspondent elective subject Material Workshop serves as a pilot course and is intended to guide the development of the platform, test its use and provide a specifically tailored teaching method. After the development and test phase, the platform can be accessed by all students and teachers of the DARCH and, together with the physical Material Collection, constitutes an active forum for the use of materials in architecture.

As was already the case with the projects Travellog and Process Cartography, the Material Workshop will also use the Digitale Diathek as a database.

The long-term and comprehensive use is guaranteed through the integration into the Digitale Diathek and the agreements made with the copyright society [Verwertungsgesellschaft für Urheberrecht].

The two on-going projects Travellog and Process Cartography serve as a proof of concept and help to simplify and accelerate the development of the Material Workshop.

Not only the students of the first year of Architecture + Construction and of the elective subject supervised by Professor Spiro will use the platform. After the development phase it will be open to all professors and their students who deal with material and design.

Through the connection with the Material Collection, a constant growth and up-to-dateness of the contents and maintenance can be guaranteed.

• Close connection between experimental material-oriented teaching with an interactive platform
• Extension and new experience of a physical material archive through a digital tool
• Procedural, practically experienced building knowledge supplements the classical encyclopaedic databases and reference sources.

The possibility to issue saved data graphically would greatly increase the use of the platform for students. Intuitive use is strongly associated with the simplicity and clarity of the graphic user interface. Every improvement in this area increases student acceptance of the platform and makes its standardisation as part of teaching easier.

Simple and intuitive operation oriented towards conventional Messenger apps. Grafics on website: Too many columns which are not used. App enables uncomplicated and quick entries. Interesting insights into other projects. Double sets of data in one’s own computer and on the platform require effort and reduces the usability of the platform. An output function which (e.g.) would make it possible to create a booklet quickly is missing.

Independence of content of individual groups increases student motivation to use the platform because they profit directly from the entries of other groups. The comments functions are useful particularly for short input items or references. Where oral discussions of the draft are possible they are preferred by students and instructors over written dialogue. The insight into the working process allows oral discussions to be better prepared and therefore more efficient and targeted. Consistent application of tags should be required and checked.