The Ones Who Have Never Been Physically in a Studio: Myths and Hacks of First Year Basic Design Students in the Pandemic

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by hdkawk

Design and architecture students entering university in 2020 experienced virtual basic design studios without prior physical studio exposure, learning through screens, speakers, and remote communication. This research examines their emergency remote teaching studio experiences and expectations using semi-structured interviews with first-year architecture students (n=14). Two themes emerge: “myths of the studio,” describing expectations formed and attempted virtually, and “hacking the studio,” highlighting actions enabled through home technologies despite limits of physical studio absence.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Background of the Study

The Ones Who Have Never Been Physically in a Studio: Myths and Hacks of First Year Basic Design Students in the Pandemic Berrak Karaca Şalgamcıoğlu, Istanbul University, Turkey İrem Genç, Istanbul University and Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Abstract Design and architecture students who have started university in 2020, unlike the students before, attended virtual studios without experiencing the physical studio environment. The vast majority of them attended classes from their rooms or living rooms of their homes in different cities and tried to meet the requirements of the courses. Their computer screen turns into their eyes and its speakers turn into their ears. They had no other experience to compare this with, yet they have lived a studio environment, juries and more, even though they are virtual. This research focuses on their experiences with an emergency remote teaching basic design studio and their expectations of a design studio environment. By making short, semi-structured interviews with first year architecture students (n=14), this study explores how pandemic experience of 2020 might affect the basic design studio environments of the future. As a result of the study, two themes emerged based on the analysis of the data. The first, called the myths of the studio, reveals the expectations of the students about the design studios and how they try to realize these expectations virtually. The second theme, defined as hacking the studio, emphases how these students perform some actions that they cannot do in a physical studio environment by using the technologies they have. Keywords design studio, virtual design studio, basic design studio, emergency remote teaching, COVID-19 pandemic Introduction Along with many other changes affecting many fields all around the world, the global COVID-19 pandemic forced most universities to move their design studios into a virtual space. Started in 2020, in the middle of the 2019-2020 Spring semester, the students who began to attend the virtual studio had already experienced a physical studio before. With the continuation of the pandemic, at the beginning of the 2020-2021 Fall semester, new students enrolled in universities, and they become the first students who experienced a virtual studio before experiencing a physical one. The first-year design/architecture students of the 2020-2021 academic year have nothing but expectations on the studio education. The vast majority of these students attended classes from their rooms or living rooms of their homes in different cities and tried to meet the requirements. Most of them never met their classmates or lecturers face-to-face, had never been on the university campus, or never been in the city which their university is in. Their computer screen turned into their eyes and its speakers turned into their ears. Their internet speed became an important issue, while they were trying to communicate with their lecturers and peers. They had no other experience to compare this with, yet they have lived a studio environment, juries and more, even though they are virtual. This paper presents a basic design studio from the 2020-2021 Fall Semester as a case study aiming to reflect the student's point of view, to determine their online basic design studio experiences in pandemic and to give design educators an idea about what can be done in the future in such emergency situations. Background of the Study Design studio has been seen as not only a “physical space”, but also a “unique pedagogic method” in design education (Broadfoot and Bennet, 2003) . Since it is seen as the “backbone”of architecture and design education, studio has always had a primary position in design teaching, mostly being a taboo, undebatable and untouchable (Salama and Wilkinson, 2007, p. 3) . Schön (1985, p.31) formulates the design studio as a process of “reflection-in-action”, emphasizing that studio learning is based on “practice and critical r

FAQs

Why did first-year design/architecture students in 2020 attend studios virtually instead of physically?

The COVID-19 pandemic forced most universities to move design studios into a virtual space, so students who started in 2020 attended virtual studios before experiencing a physical studio environment.

How was the research conducted in this study?

The study used short, semi-structured interviews with first year architecture students (n=14) to explore experiences and expectations related to the pandemic-era basic design studio.

What are the two main themes found in the analysis?

The analysis identified “myths of the studio,” which reflects students’ expectations and attempts to realize them virtually, and “hacking the studio,” which describes how students use technologies to perform actions they could not do in a physical studio environment.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by hdkawk