Aspects of Reciprocal Imitation between the Tutor and the Student in Architectural Design Studio Tutorials

Abstract

The right imitation is a prerequisite for creativity. A student’s imitation of his or her tutor in architectural design tutorials can ignite their creativity. On the other hand, a tutor’s imitation of his or her student helps them to read the student’s mind, and offer a better teaching. In this paper, ‘reciprocal imitation’ in architectural design studio is introduced, which comprises ‘implicit imitation’ by the student of the tutor and ‘responding imitation’ by the tutor. In this regard, the views of two well-known researchers in design studies, namely, Donald Schön and Kees Dorst, are compared in order to attain two concepts of ‘descriptive imitation’ and ‘explanatory imitation’, clarifying them in the ‘designerly’ interaction between the student and the tutor; the interaction that propers architectural design education. Through ‘conceptualisation’ of the existing literature via rational reasoning, the various aspects of reciprocal imitation are deduced to identify how the ‘mainstream design’ arises from ‘mainstream education’, and ‘creative design’ from ‘creative education’. The overarching aim of the research is to identify and clarify those aspects of reciprocal imitation between the tutor and the student that can make tutorials more creative. The result is a diagram that shows the position and the relationship between different concepts of reciprocal imitation in tutorials.

Keywords

• architectural education
• architectural design studio
• tutorial
• tutor and student
• reciprocal imitation
• creative education
• creative design