Foundation design studio (first year) in the School of Architecture introduces essential representational skills and design concepts through a rigorous sequence of hand-drawing and physical modeling exercises. In particular,

first year emphasizes the use of 2D and 3D diagramming as an aid to understanding and generating designs. Unfortunately, teaching this to students can be a challenge. Our program’s diagramming style involves complex geometric procedures that require a high degree of precision. Although we provide clear descriptions using serial images, we have found that many students still have trouble making connections between what they are trying to draw and how to produce the correct drawing. This paper describes a pilot study we conducted to determine the impact of interactive digital materials upon a preexisting curriculum with traditional handouts and documentation. In a year-long project, we developed and assessed a set of user-controlled animations as a supplement to our current teaching methods.

Although our research is still preliminary and there

are many technical improvements to be made in

the animations themselves, we found evidence

that animations can help beginning design

students learn architectural diagramming

methods.