STOÀ Journal n. 13, year V, 2/3, Summer 2025
[Schools. Communities]

The term school can have many meanings, and within many of these interpretations, particularly in the field of architectural design, there is a well-established tradition of reflection on the subject. However, one of these interpretations has been much less explored than others, even though it relates to the fundamental pedagogical relationship that the school reflects: the relationship between professor and student – teacher and learner – which in design education, due to its experimental, immersive and interactive nature, takes on entirely unique forms.
This relationship within design studios has never been exclusively frontal, hierarchical or unidirectional. Rather, it has evolved through a series of variable polarities in which both parties are involved in ways that differ significantly from those that typically characterize ex cathedra academic practices. Indeed, the space devoted to this form of teaching – the studio – has long since anticipated the innovative teaching models now used in many other disciplines.
The question of how these relationships are structured today is an urgent one that raises two key issues that require reflection.
The first is the relational issue, which concerns the changing material and immaterial context in which teaching takes place, in terms of behavioral dynamics, cognitive models and educational objectives. The second is the issue of scale, which considers how this relationship can be interpreted at different levels: at the interpersonal level, between individual teachers and individual students; at the programmatic level, in terms of specific studio formats; or at the systemic level, in terms of the organization of an entire course of study.
Our interest lies in the close examination of specific experiences in the widest and most diverse physical contexts possible, allowing us to reflect on shared values and principles or, conversely, on recurring challenges and critical issues. In doing so, we aim to bring to light relevant issues and concerns, substantiate arguments and highlight the most critical aspects of contexts, ultimately shaping contemporary scenarios and landscapes of particular pedagogical environments and the relationships they foster.
The aim is to collect contributions in which students, teachers and researchers, in dialogue with one another, can reflect together on the pedagogical models in which they are immersed, giving priority to the students’ perspective, while framing the specificity and peculiarity of their relationships as mediated by the practice of learning and teaching architectural design.
Essays, reports, and interviews will seek to explore these relationships, generating multivocal reflections on the ways and specificities through which connections and relationships are built in the unique environment of the design studio.

 




We are interested in contributions that specifically engage with:

→ recognizing common traits in contemporary international pedagogical experiences;

→ exemplifying, through their conceptualization, specific didactic experiences, through reports, dialogues and interviews with internationally renowned professors, capable of becoming synthetic and effective expressions of a teaching know-how;

→ tracing a limit that can be shared by the scientific community, within which to critically and tendentiously “position” ideas and (didactic) projects, in order to build a a recognizable system by substantiating the reasons.
 
Abstracts in English or Italian (max. 1500 characters, with one keyword before the title), three images and a biography of 500 characters for each author should be submitted (in .doc file) to: redazione@stoajournal.com

︎︎︎Download the call

︎︎︎Editorial Norms
︎︎︎Deadline: 25/10/2024

Accepted abstracts will be announced by 04/11/2024.

Contributions accepted for publication in the printed journal are expected by 31/01/2025 in the form of a scientific essay, accompanied by notes, bibliography and images, for a maximum of 18,000 characters (spaces, notes and bibliography included) and 8 images/pictures (of which you own the copyright of if they are free for use).

The proposed article must be original in its content. It should have not been published in another print or digital journal or book.

Accepted essays in their final version will undergo a process of Double-Blind Peer Review. Stoà is a scientific journal for non-bibliometric areas 08 - “Civil Engineering and Architecture” (Resolution no. 184 by the National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes-ANVUR, 27-07-2023).

The call is open to PhD students, researchers, professors and all scholars academically involved in teaching architecture.

Abstracts will not be accepted from authors whose contributions have already been published in Stoà 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.

︎︎︎ITA