New tools and techniques for learning in the field

摘要

The growing ubiquity of mobile digital technologies in the infrastructures of daily urban life has profound implications for architectural education. Amy Kulper and Sheila Crane argued in a recent issue of the Journal of Architectural Education that such technologies are a vector of the "new forms of architectural agency that students are presented with as they move into the profession". With this context in mind, recent research at the University of Sydney explored the potential for mobile digital technologies to 'emplace' students in the theories that shape the insights and practices of architecture and urbanism. The Sydney study was a component of a national research project, led by Associate Professor Hannah Lewi and Dr Wally Smith at the University of Melbourne and funded by the Federal Government's Office for Learning and Teaching. The project, New tools and techniques for learning in the field: studying the built environment, aimed to investigate the potential for new forms of field-based learning in university education stimulated by recent advances in mobile digital technology. The project team conducted four interrelated but distinctive studies to evaluate a range of innovative techniques for fieldwork in built environment education.