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Architectural education encompasses a multidisciplinary curriculum including design, theory, history, technology, environmental considerations, urban planning, social aspects, and professional practice. This study aims to investigate the extent to which students can effectively integrate structural concepts into architectural design. This examination takes place within the framework of a third-year architectural design studio course, where students advance their design processes with input from architectural design instructors and experts in structural concepts. To facilitate this endeavour, a simple visual screening form was introduced to aid in the learning process. The study utilises a newly generated survey, namely 'Structural System Control Form', which is inspired by the rapid visual screening forms, to assess the students' comprehension of structural concepts during a 14-week architectural design studio. Employing a descriptive and correlational research approach, the study assesses the effectiveness of this integrated strategy in enhancing the students' understanding of structural principles. The findings revealed a notable development among students who participated in the integrated approach, highlighting the value of feedback and evaluation from instructors versed in construction. Furthermore, the use of simplified structural models in students' projects improved their understanding of structural concepts and their ability to incorporate them into their architectural representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses challenges in teaching earthquake-resistant structural systems to architecture students and seeks to enhance efficiency. Developing a compatible teaching approach is crucial for better collaboration with engineers. The impact of a lack of knowledge about earthquake-resistant systems is more evident in quake-prone regions. The study highlights the importance of hands-on experience in teaching structural theory, fostering better learning and comprehension. The study showcases an undergraduate-level course that diverged from traditional exams. Instead, students undertook a project where groups designed scaled models representing different structural responses, which underwent testing on a handmade shake table. Analysis highlighted demonstrations of various responses like soft stories, dynamic behaviour, pounding and weak columns. The hands-on approach enriched students' practical insights into structural behaviour, aiding informed design choices. This approach enhances overall learning, deepens comprehension, and readies students to apply seismic design principles conscientiously. Learning by doing proves pivotal in mastering earthquake-resistant structural systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human life that is collective and diverse on the one hand, but complex and chaotic on the other, is largely experienced in metropolitan cities owing to a significant amount of migration. Istanbul can be defined as a city that constantly witnesses massive influxes of migration and ultimately becomes socially heterogeneous. It was hypothesized in this study that the multilayered urban character of the city affects the perceptions of city-dwellers, especially children. As such, the study focused on the perceptual differences of children living in socially diverse urban settings, and a comparative analysis was conducted to reveal the children's environmental perceptions regarding their nearby home environments. This case-study-oriented research was conducted with 11-year-old children from two subcommunities both located in the periphery of Istanbul: one from a gecekondu settlement on the fringes of Istanbul, and the other, a planned residential settlement (PRS). The methodology was based on the representations by the children since this methodology has the potential to present an understanding of spatial perception through both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. A representation of children's houses with their immediate surroundings was requested from the children so that two different cognitive map datasets were obtained regarding two diverse subcommunities. Significant results were obtained in the study, in which gender and settlement type were used as independent variables. As a result, it was revealed that the girls were more inclined to draw their own rooms, were more focused on indoor spaces and were further apt to draw the domestic appliances. When the results were evaluated depending on the settlement type variable, it was revealed that those living in PRS represented indoors more and were specifically focused on their own rooms, while those living in gecekondu settlement tended to draw domestic appliances and outdoor spaces more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the effects of the independent spatial variables of volumetric visibility, natural light, and the infinity index value on both perceived openness and spaciousness, and on the concept of familiarity, using computer-generated images of sixteen nodes of a university building. Ninety participants in three groups from two universities were selected to examine the effects of familiarity on the dependent variables of openness and spaciousness. These dependent variables of perception were explored through a semantic evaluation test, where the participants experienced the sixteen spatial nodes in a virtual environment derived from fixed vantage points on two floors of the case study campus building. The results revealed that the perceived spaciousness is significantly correlated to the independent physical aspects of space, such as the volumetric visibility, the natural light, and the infinity value, while familiarity with space indicated a higher ratio of perceived openness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]