The first round of studio pilots used the themes of “Materials and Methodologies”.

Academic teams in each school trialled new methods of teaching, alongside new content on material selection, performance, life-cycle and designing for disassembly in design studio projects.. Seven pilots took place in the Autumn semester 2022-23, with all partner schools participating. This translated into real action on the ground visible to our students.

A Student Symposium in TU Dublin on 13th April 2023 explored the student experience of these studio pilots. Students and staff presented outcomes and learnings from their Pilot Project work.

Rodhán McKenna -Student UL

I think the project was done really well this year, the briefing was really thought out, the group work and planning, it’s all been amazing for me. I’ve really enjoyed it and I think it’s one of the best experiences I’ve had so far in SAUL.

Hanna D’Aughton – Student TU Dublin

We were a lot more conscious of how well you can use material, the limits of material, how to implement structure and how heavily that can influence a building.

Kate Lavin –  Student SETU

I learned that there are so many different ways to do the same thing and to approach the same topic. I learned it from looking at other students and how they presented their findings and their work.

Darragh Baraid – Student CCAE

I think it was really interesting looking at alternative materials to see how to create sustainable architecture. In our project, we were looking at an old primary school, and it was interesting to see how to reuse and readapt those existing buildings that were there.

Peter Carroll – lecturer UL

I think the key learning from our Symposium today was the coming together of minds … for students to interact with one another to see the differences as well as the commonality across all of the pilot projects.

Maroun Tabal – lecturer CCAE

What’s really different is that the pilot projects are bringing six institutions and so many wonderful people together in dialogue, discussing their profession, what they do day-to-day, and how does that make them change what they do. That’s what is most wonderful about this project.

Mary Byrne – lecturer ATU

My sense of the work and the approaches, the thinking of the students, and the learning, shows that it is absolutely a critical part of our future as practitioners.

Miriam Delaney- Curriculum Change Lead, TU Dublin

The core potential of ‘Building Change’ is in learning from each other, staff and students, across all schools. The scale of the challenge we face means real collaboration is critical. The student symposium was unique in hearing directly from each school on how they trailed new teaching methods and placed material selection at the heart of their studio teaching.