Studio Properties: A Field Guide to Design Education

There is something very special about the studio as a place of practice and learning. It allows designers, students, educators and researchers to imagine the world as it might be, facilitating playful creation and critical exploration across a diverse range of design disciplines. This open access book examines the essential properties of the studio within the complex landscape of design education as a place for experimentation and development. Brought together by a team of experts in design pedagogy, Studio Properties is both a tool for education and an inspiration for developing teaching and learning techniques in the studio setting.

The text is based around:
- Properties - short descriptions of entities that the reader might encounter in the design education studio
- Narratives - semi-biographical accounts of studio teaching which offer a way of seeing the studio from a new perspective
- Essays - which set out some of the theory, frames and ideas that underpin contemporary studio research, as well as historic cultures and practices

Motivated by the absence of a comprehensive book on studio pedagogy, this guide is aimed at both those teaching within a studio setting and those interested in the scholarship of design education.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Open University.

Elizabeth Boling is a professor of instructional design at Indiana University, USA, whose background in design practice includes illustration, interface and management of interactive materials design for Apple Computer and Macmillan Publishing. She is editor-in-chief of International Journal of Designs for Learning, and studies design pedagogy and practice in the context of instructional design. Editor and author of Studio Teaching in Higher Education: Selected Design Cases.

James Benedict Brown is Associate Professor of Architecture at the Umeå School of Architecture. He is the co-editor of A Gendered Profession (RIBA Publishing, 2016) and Architectural Thinking in a Climate Emergency (Routledge, 2023) and the author of Mediated Space (RIBA Publishing, 2018). He has a particular interest in critical pedagogy and the role of design-build and live projects in architectural education.

James Corazzo is an award-winning graphic design educator and co-founder of the UK Subject Association Graphic Design Educators’ Network. As Teaching and Learning Lead at Sheffield Hallam, UK, he works with academics across his institution to playfully and reflexively examine creative education. He researches and publishes on the social, cultural and material assemblages of the studio and design education.

Colin M. Gray is an Associate Professor at Purdue University, USA, and leads a program in User Experience (UX) Design. Their research focuses on the ways in which the pedagogy and practice of designers informs the development of design ability, particularly in relation to ethics, design knowledge, and learning experience. They have previously published co-edited books on studio education and instructional design. Editor and author of Studio Teaching in Higher Education: Selected Design Cases.

Derek Jones is a Senior Lecturer in Design at The Open University, UK, part of the OU Design Group, and the Convenor of the DRS Education SIG. His research interests are: the pedagogy of design and creativity, embodied cognition in design, and theories of design knowledge. Editor and author of BITE: Recipes for Remarkable Research and EqualBITE: Gender Equality in Higher Education.

Nicole Lotz is a Senior Lecturer at the Open University, UK, and Equality Diversity, Inclusivity and Accessibility Lead and Athena Swan Chair for the School of Engineering and Innovation. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and member of the convening group of the Design Education Special Interest Group at the Design Research Society. She researches and publishes on social engagement and inclusion in distance design studios and learning.