Design studios, taught from afar

By Kurt Butterfield

Seattle designer  Peter Jahnke enjoys a thriving practice, travels extensively, and still finds time to indulge his passion for teaching architecture. How does he manage all of this? Remotely. Jahnke, 31, teaches from his office or wherever he happens to be at the moment while his graduate students gather in a studio classroom at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. Employing Webcams and video-chat software by ooVoo, he and his students were able to successfully conduct an entire semester-long studio, a broad-scope project entitled “Nickelsville,” addressing Seattle’s homeless problem.

This was a natural approach for Jahnke, whose partners in PIQUE llc each live in different locales.
The three geographically separated architects rely heavily on diagramming to communicate their ideas with precise detail, and this was a form of communication that Jahnke hoped to develop in his studio class. “In diagramming, every step is considered visually,” he says, “so you become very fluid in creating things that are presentation-quality.”

According to Curt Lamb, executive director of education initiatives at Boston Architectural College (BAC), which offers a complete, remotely taught graduate program, there is still great resistance by most universities to teach design studios this way. “There’s a long history of face-to-face crits in studio classes,” he says. “So it’s hard for schools to move to online formats. Also, there are the increased IT demands to consider.” Lamb says that for BAC’s mission of providing accessible and affordable learning, using digital tools is obvious. BAC uses customized software such as VoiceThread and Blackboard’s Angel edition to run its remote studios.

While this method of teaching wasn’t optimal for all of Jahnke’s students, those who were more self-motivated found it an exceptionally useful way to learn. The fact that their instructor was not physically present forced students to communicate their design ideas far more thoroughly than usual. Graduate student Blake Webber discovered that the remote studio “challenged me to think about architecture and the process two-imensionally and verbally, and as a result I became quite fluid in communicating my ideas.” Fellow student Brian Johnson adds, “These sorts of courses are essential for career development, when you need to communicate professionally, sharing files and information with clients and coworkers.”

Both the BAC studios and Jahnke’s require some face time with an instructor. Jahnke made three trips to Montana throughout the semester and also met locally with his students in Seattle for a weeklong on-site session. BAC’s courses have an intensive weeklong residency in Boston. Instructors are also readily available online and via phone. “This kind of learning lets students gain some fluency with the way global business is practiced,” says Lamb. According to Jahnke, Montana State has no current plans to go through with another remotely run studio. 

 

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