This study argues that the shift towards a more multidisciplinary professional life in contemporary design practice requires design curricula to equip students with collaborative skills. The study offers that by the aid of web-based collaborative learning (WBCL) in design education, different disciplines may be brought together during their education. A case study is held as a rehearsal of professional life; involving architecture and interior architecture students collaborating on a common project, using WBCL. The evaluations of the participating students about the process were analyzed. The findings convey that there is a mutual problem of recognition of professional domains. In order to diagnose and possibly reconcile tensions that may occur due to this problem in professional life, this paper asserts that integrating interdisciplinary work to the design curricula would be beneficial.

There is a current vacillation in choosing hand or computer for design presentation in academia. Although the computer emerged as very powerful alternative presentation medium, it could not sweep away the hand totally. Believing that this vacillation cannot only be due to the positive and negative aspects of both media, we worked with a group of students in a design curriculum to observe the factors that affect their choice of medium for presenting design ideas. The students were required to use both media for the same task, subsequently their satisfaction and evaluation were examined through a questionnaire. Students acknowledged the positive aspects of both media, rather than accumulating on one side. Findings led us to concur that the constant oscillation of architecture between art and science penetrates down to the individual choice of presentation medium. We assert that the warmness of hand is not deserted as it contemplates the artistic essence, while the digital perfection of the computers flirt with science. The ever-attended, age-old question of architecture's being art and/or science occupies the architectural agenda at various levels. Both the polarizations and the reconciliations have theoretical, practical and educational consequences. This paper locates itself within this context and proposes a new framework for analyzing the impacts of this oscillation in design presentation, concluding that the future of presentation in education points to the coexistence of both media.

The tendency towards computer aid in design presentations differs in academia than in the practicing field; practice seems to welcome computer aid in presentation, whereas in academia there seems to be a dilemma. In this study, we approach this duality based on our teaching experience within an interior architecture curriculum. First, we unfold the problematic to identify the contributing factors, then we observe the tendencies through a questionnaire with design students and interviews with design instructors, and finally we project upon our findings. We claim that the contributing factors to the problematic are: loss of author identity, problems of authenticity, and proficiency of the instructors in computers. Also we claim that although the transitional period of accommodating computer tools in design education in terms of presentation seems to be over, an adjustment period is starting anew. One of the powerful aspects of this period is not allowing hand skills to fade away.

This study explores the impact of virtual classrooms as an emerging classroom typology in comparison to the physical classrooms in the design process. Two case studies were held in order to infer design students' classroom preferences in the project lifecycle. The findings put forth figures that compare two forms of design communication in the two classroom types in terms of their contribution to design development. Although the students acknowledged many advantages of web-based communication in the virtual classroom, they indicated that they are unwilling to let go off face-to-face encounters with the instructors and fellow students in the physical classroom. It is asserted that the future design studio will be an integrated learning environment where both physical and virtual encounters will be presented to the student. Utilizing the positive aspects of both communication techniques, a hybrid setting for the design studio is introduced, comprising the physical classroom as well as the virtual one. The proposed use for the hybrid setting is grouped under 3 phases according to the stage of the design process; as the initial, development and final phases. Within this framework, it is inferred that the design studio of the future will be an integrated form of space, where the physical meets the virtual.

This study constitutes a framework, a justification and a proposal for the opportunity to improve the use and eficiency of visualization of architecture in the virtual environment. It seeks a new pla tfortn to define architectural design communication.The design process depends upon creation of models and virtual environment offers the medium of exchange where the design modeI can be shared and criticized by people other than the designer; various anaSysis can be apphed and the results of both can be used to change or improve the design.Possibilities offered by visualization do not fit into the paper-based way of architectural thinking. In order to benefit from the potential of visualization it is required to redefine architecture, architectural design process and architectural terms with respect to the virtuai en vironm en t. This study introduces a transitional solution between the paper-based and the fiture ways of thinking in architecture by enabling the designers customize the Asualization so&are according to their purposes. Concept of modeling in architectureOur perception, comprehension, implementation and communication with the environment are realized through mental models used to store, compare or change the information about that environment. We build up mental models to store the information about an environment and then whenever we are in need of changing or evaluating that environment we refer to that model.Design and design communication depend on such models. Every architectural product is based on a design model created in the designer's mind. When designers create, they make up mental models loaded with various kinds of information (form, dimensions, relations, materials, colors, structure, etc. of spaces) about the design.They then try to display the design model and communicate about it through various media until the design is realized in full scale; until the design is built [l]. Thus, every architectural product is in fact the physical representation of a mental design model. Nevertheless, physical existence is not the only difference between the design model and the architectural product, there is also the factor of time.Architecture lives in four dimensions. Along with the three dimensions which make up the physical volume of architecture, time emerges as the fourth dimension. Time is a crucial factor to architecture since it determines a life span for the architectural product through which it will be perceived and maintained. The time coordinate of architecture runs parallel to history and offers every building a definite time period starting from construction to destruction. This coordinate might be called the actual time coordinate.However, any design model created to carry information about the future architectural product acquires two time coordinates. One is (again) the actual time coordinate displaying the time period when the design takes place. This period is generally followed by the life span of the building. Other coordinate is the virtual time coordinate which offer...