Costumes and parties: designing through play, representation, and critical thinking
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5821/jida.2025.13652Keywords:
research by design, experimental pedagogy, research by drawing, critical representation, speculative designAbstract
During the 2024-25 academic year, the opportunity arose to coordinate the courses Projects 1 and Projects 2 within the Bachelor’s Degree in Interior Design. The teaching proposal was structured around active methodologies that emphasized autonomy, experimentation, and critical reflection as the core of the learning process. In Projects 1, the starting point was a playful dynamic: each student assumed the role of an architect-avatar, assigned randomly, whose work had to be investigated through analytical drawing, redrawing, and diagramming. This initial phase aimed to consolidate a repertoire of references and to understand drawing as a critical language. Subsequently, students were invited to design an ephemeral Fiesta in Madrid’s Retiro Park, linked to the universe of their avatar. In Projects 2, the process was inverted: the avatars were non-architectural, explored through objects and collages, situated within the context of Warehouse 16 at Matadero Madrid.
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