Danny Windmolders, Michel Preuveneers Provinciale Hogeschool Limburg, Department of Architecture, Diepenbeek, Belgium 161
artistic sensibility that takes the separate rational processes and preconditions to a
meaningful and integral synthesis.
Assessments
During several intermediary phases, the students are informed about the quality of
the presented work. Through individual guidance the students will be given feedback
about their strengths and weaknesses and if necessary, are presented with supple-
mentary assignments to train their weak spots.
The final evaluation is made on the basis of a document in which the students
present a complete overview of all projects of the academic year. The jury will criti-
cally and extensively discuss the results of the students’ presentation during a 30
minute session for each student.
During this final evaluation, the entire body of work the student has presented
during the second bachelor year design studio is taken in consideration. Not only
the final product is important, but also the design process and a coherent and well-
considered presentation and communication.
Criteria for assessment
The evaluation of the student’s results focuses on three criteria: spatial quality,
abilities to synthesize and several specific competences. Student’s work must be of
substantial quality concerning the first two criteria to be able to pass for the whole
design studio work.
Spatial quality is the primary criterion in the assessment. If the student fails to
demonstrate sufficient spatial quality, he or she will obviously not pass. Students
therefore have to demonstrate that they have sufficient insight of spatial problems:
how does the student project deal with the existing context, the design brief, scale,
specific spatial articulations... Students must show maturity in composition: the
way they deal with internal relationships, the way they use light and material in the
composition of space and forms.
As a second criterion which must be met to pass, students must demonstrate
their ability for synthesis in their projects in the well-considered use of the specific
characteristics of the design problem within a global vision and concept. A sensitive
and coherent whole must be achieved while respecting the logics of each aspect of
the design problem.
The third criterion puts emphasis on some other competences students must possess
in this stage of the curriculum concerning constructive, functional and critical reason-
ing within the context of their projects and the way they are able to communicate
about architecture in general and their own projects in particular. Concerning their
ability for constructive reasoning, the student must grasp the nature of the construc-
tive problem, must be able to relate the problem to the physical phenomena behind
the problem which are thought in theory courses (building physics, statics...) and
demonstrate basic knowledge of constructive solutions and how the student uses this
in a positive way in the architectural composition.
Apart from this, students have to show that they are able to translate either a