Multimedia and Architectural Disciplines: 13th eCAADe Conference Proceedings

The rapid development of the potentialities of multimedia imposes a reflection about its use in teaching architecture. Multimedia is multifaceted and each facet deserves a particular attention inasmuch as it can change the traditional approach to learning. A direct experience of an architectural work can be simulated with a impact far stronger than an experience trough photographs, drawings and books can do. But, as every positive fact can have in certain cases also some negative consequences. the intensity of the participation to an experience structured by someone else can leave less space to a personal approach to the object of the presentation. The same problem is posed if we consider the structure of an hypertext. The essence of the hypertext lies in the net of relationships between very different kinds of documents that it is able to manage in order to express the complexity of its theme. But who has to create the net, the teacher choosing the relationship that he thinks important or the learner to build a personal image of the hypertext matter. It is an old question about the two faces of teaching: transmitting knowledge or giving the learner the instruments to build by oneself his store of knowledge. Easy and trivial answer that both approaches can be useful. The accomplishment of a multimedial sequence of average complexity requires at present a lot of time. Hence, to be convenient, it is to be used many times, then by many students. The effectiveness of the tool partly depends on the rapidity with which it can be constructed. Speeding it up would allow to use this kind of tools with the same easiness than mare traditional means of representation. Besides those general considerations a check is to do on the peculiarities, if any, of the use of multimedia in the different disciplines of the formative curriculum of an architect. This is theme of our thirteenth conference. The programme has been articulated into sessions, dealing separately with history teaching, design teaching and research. Of course the sessions dealing with design are more numerous than the other, since design is the axis of teaching architecture. The presented paper cover a large arc of arguments, dealing with many facets of the proposed themes with plenty of examples and documentation on practical experiences. constituting a corpus of great usefulness for any operator in the field of architectural teaching