Team Orientated Knowledge Construction for Architectural Education

Information Technology is always more accessible when we trying to imagine what the IT could be actually used. This situation is even more noticeable in the architecture field, and there are various technologies that have failed on delivering urgent needed education quality. Meanwhile, the tradition architecture education is evolving rapidly under the concepts of problem-based approach, knowledge reconstruction, and self-guided learning. “Education without institutional boundary” happens everyday in the classroom, and multi-direction learning modes have replaced the traditional single-direction teaching approach. The role of IT in the curriculum of architectural design education has become a subject of debate, scrutiny and experimentation in architectural schools. This paper will first outline the theory of applying team-oriented knowledge construction approach into studio teaching, the setup of our integrated digital design media environment is introduced; organization issue regarding the team formation and studio coordination is discussed; case studies are illustrated for demonstrating the methodology applied; and the student feedback is summarized to analysis the effectiveness of the approach.