Some thoughts on critique
Ideas on Feedback and Design
The best way to insure that you are successful in this course is to keep the lines of communication open. Please contact me if you are needing help, or having trouble meeting deadlines. I have all kinds of strategies to assist you.
It is possible that In your past academic experience, when your teacher evaluated your work the requirements were stated and grades was reflected how well your work fulfilled requirements. This is pretty straight forward when the answers/solutions are known beforehand. In many classes the answers are quantifiable and there was only one, or at the very least, a limited number of answers.
Architecture design studios are different. Architectural design is comprised of questions, and your search for answers, As architects and designers it is the known and the unknown and the process of exploration that creates design solutions, and goes on to create new answers, ones that do not yet exist. There are no projects in this class that I know the answer for.
You will learn to evaluate your own work - maybe by looking at other student's processes and their work, through critiques with your professors, and by curiosity that drives you to expand your knowledge of the subject. This is not an easy thing to do. For critique and feedback to be productive, realize that criticism is always about the work, not the person.
Begin this practice immediately. Your solutions to each assignment will be reacted to on the strength of idea, degree of challenge, and level of complexity. Hopefully your ideas show evidence of applying a broad range of resources to inform the quality of your solution. Your work will also show evidence of knowledge gained from within the studio as well as other co-requisite courses and cultural events. Exceptional work is built upon a synthesis of previous knowledge, not only the studio assignment.
I think Professor Miller from LAVC has some interesting things to say about critiques and feedback.
