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introduction |
The Universitat Ramon Llull (URL), Barcelona, Spain, was founded in
1991 by some of the leading higher education institutions in Catalonia
(http://www.url.es). Enginyeria
La Salle (http://www.salleurl.edu),
one of the founding institutions of the URL, was created in 1903, to
respond to the needs of the Catalan industry and society. Currently,
the School offers studies in Electronics, Telecommunications, Computer
Science, Image and Sound, Multimedia, and Architecture, both at the
graduate and postgraduate levels. The School of Architecture was opened
in the academic year 1997/1998, with the intention to form the modern
architect, who can successfully combine the traditional knowledge of
the profession with the mastering of the latest technology. The pedagogic
model adopted by the School aims at promoting critical thinking and
creativity, active participation and collaboration, by exploiting the
capacities of technology without neglecting the humanist values on which
education must be based upon. Daniel Cabedo i Puy, Director, Enginyeria i Arquitectura La Salle |
 Installation at the Stazione Leopolda, Florence (photo by: Omar Cotza) |
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| SDR:
Sistemas de Representación Instructor: Leandro Madrazo http://www.salleurl.edu/arc http:// www.salleurl.edu/sdr |
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Home page of the course SDR (http://www.salleurl.edu/sdr). It displays a gallery of student works, summaries of the theoretical content, description of the collaborative environment for each theme, as well as news and events related to the course. The course SDR is structured in six themes, each one of them standing for a System of Representation: TEXT, FIGURE, OBJECT, IMAGE, SPACE and LIGHT. Within every System, a variety of topics dealing with the concept of Representation are addressed in an interdisciplinary manner. Representation is, therefore, the subject matter of the course. Around the concept of Representation, a new conceptual framework is created which embraces a variety of disciplines: gestaltung, graphic design, communication, aesthetics, philosophy and computation. A web-based environment, named SDR: NETWORKING, has been especially conceived for this course. It has been created to promote the active participation of students in the process of knowledge building. The environment is made up of three elements intimately related: 1. An open-ended theoretical framework, built up from 'theory bits' taken from different disciplines 2. Individual and collaborative exercises, designed for the students to explore in a practical way the theoretical content 3. A comprehensive web system, with environments for collaborative work especially adapted to the requisites of each one of the six themes that make up the course. For example, in the theme TEXT students analyze manifestoes about architectural theory constructing concept maps collaboratively; in FIGURE, they add variations to compositions created by their peers; in OBJECT, they participate in processes of form generation developing a three-dimensional object throughout successive stages; and in SPACE, they create spatial structures and narratives collaboratively. The theoretical content and pedagogic methodology of the course are, therefore, closely knitted with technology, both at the content and the practice level. The theoretical content, made up of interrelated "theory bits", conforms to the nature of the Net, where relationships between items become more important than the items themselves. The web-based environments allow students to move from the sphere of individual thinking up to the understanding of the metaknowledge structures underlying processes of collaborative thinking. The course SDR is being offered since the academic year 1998/1999. It is taking place in the second and third year of a five year professional program. The overall duration of the course is one and a half years. The size of the class has been steadily growing, from 50 students in the first year up to 110 in the academic year 2002/2003. The course combines traditional lectures and individual exercises with on-line collaborative work. Exercises are carried out using a variety of media: computer programs, photography and video, drawings and physical models. Teaching Assistants: Eduardo Hernández, Mario Hernández, Marta Sabat Computer programming: Francesc Duran, Joan Massey, Roser Romà, Álvaro Sicilia, Jordi Vidal. |
Leandro Madrazo is Professor at the Escola Tècnica i Superior d´Arquitectura La Salle, where he teaches Architectural Design and Theory, Representation and Digital Media, since 1999. He is head of the research group ARC (Architecture-Representation-Computation) and director of the PhD program “Knowledge Representation in Architecture”. From 1990 to 1999 he was teaching and researching at the ETH Zurich, where he obtained his PhD degree (1995). In 1984 he obtained his Architect´s degree at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and studied later, as Fulbright scholar, in the Master of Architecture programs at UCLA and Harvard University (1986-1988). He has published numerous articles and papers about the integration of computing in architectural education. | |||||
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