Author:

Keywords:

architectural education, scenario-based design

Abstract:

In architecture, the growing complexity of design processes increases the distance between design and use contexts, which makes it challenging to take into account user experience in design. This situation is reflected in architectural education, where students typically design for hypothetical clients and users. Initiatives to introduce user perspectives in architectural design have pointed out the value of narrative approaches as well as challenges to its integration in the design process. This paper sets out to explore the potential of scenarios, a technique from related design disciplines to iteratively and explicitly involve user perspectives, for architectural design. A scenario-based design approach was tested in a master-level architectural design studio on co-working space. In a concept generation workshop, students received current use scenarios based on empirical research on co-working spaces. In a consultation session, students assessed their design by walking through the building in the users’ shoes. For the final presentation, they represented a typical day on the site for one of the users. Observations were made during these sessions, students’ design entries were collected and their feedback was obtained through an online survey. Students appreciated the user perspectives extending their own experience and preferences. The approach supported programming and concept generation, resulted in a larger diversity of spaces in their design, especially in terms of atmospheres, while opening up more potential, especially with regard to circulation areas, and supported consistency in the design proposal and presentation. The design studio test suggests that this narrative method is largely suited to communicate user experience and allows for a future-oriented exploration of a new building programme like co-working. Future research should further look into ways to visualise use activities in relation to spatial qualities in the scenarios, as well as ways to integrate user research and user participation with the scenario-based design approach.