Despite the pandemic, students' work is fizzing with purpose

摘要

'Lost'. 'Lonely'. 'Like being in quicksand'. These are just some of the experiences of nearly 400 respondents to the AJ Student Survey. A massive 40 per cent have found the isolation and lack of mixing with other students the most challenging aspect of studying through the past year. Twenty per cent flagged the lack of studio time as the most difficult aspect. Thirty per cent have found learning 'really hard'.You have to feel for students through this awful pandemic. All the brilliant and often fleeting things about student life - a time of shared learning, socialising and camaraderie -whittled down to a remote online slog. How do you recreate that essential studio situation, so central to architectural education, in cramped student accommodation, staring into a screen?Exhausted teachers will have invariably done their best in this set-up; maybe the stillness will have concentrated some students' minds on their projects.