Learning by designing: Investigating new didactic methods to learn architectural design

The paper aims to investigate the experiential learning approach applied to the teaching of architectural design in university courses. The introduction of IT tools in architecture in the last decades, has introduced new questions in how to teach the computer-aided architectural design to students and how to use these tools properly. Among these themes, parametric design tools have become relevant for many researchers and designers around the world. This paper aims to describe how to provide students the critical tools to use the new parametric design softwares consciously, showing also the results of the students’ research projects for the 3rd year Architectural Design Course. As mentioned before, the course is set on learning by doing and experiential learning didactic paradigms. In the first semester, the students were asked to imagine new complex stereotomic vaulted systems using parametric softwares. In the second semester, following the latest developments in sustainable architecture, the students were asked to imagine and fabricate reactive devices in order to design smart building envelopes, through dynamic sunlight filtering. At the end of the year, the students were able to use the skills developed during the whole year, designing a more complex architecture, like an innovative high school.