This paper addresses the understudied educational space of what is commonly understood as the preprofessional portfolio- development studio. It describes a design pedagogy developed to serve preprofessional and non-design-major students from liberal-arts colleges pursuing admission to a first-professional graduate degree program in architecture. Starting from the premise that in complexity lies myriad opportunities for discovery and growth, this studio establishes a robust platform for this unique group of students to encounter the richness and expansiveness of the discipline, and to understand and explore architecture’s capacities as an agent of positive change in the world. It is further argued that what a complex, case study-based design project facilitates for these beginning design students is a depth and richness of engagement, and that like a great work of literature, a complex architectural problem asks students to wrestle all at once with its many layers—with its clarity and contradictions, its strengths and shortcomings—and to evaluate its evolving place in, and meaning to society. In this light each student’s efforts to define their own approach can be shown to reveal insights not only about the object of study, but also about themselves and their own nascent interests in design, architecture, and the built environment.
Case Study: Use of Online Tools in the Classroom and their Impact on Industrial Design Pedagogy