ARCHITECTURAL design studios
tutor & lecturer
College of Architecture | Kuwait University
My experience as a tutor at the College of Architecture at Kuwait University, has encouraged me to interrogate alternative methods that influence the relationship between education, professional practice and social obligation. Through the various design studios, I seek to understand how student subjectivities become central to pedagogical discourse; how to encourage student empowerment; and how to re-align the power structure of knowledge consumption and social relations that ultimately help foster the development of independent and critical thought. The architecture studio as an environment for professional learning is being constantly contested and alternative models that are based on contextual research, mediating between ‘live projects’ and the traditional studio based environment are being explored as a result.
DESIGN BASICS STUDIO 2014
NOSTALGIC REACTOR
Tutors: Dr. Abdulmutalib AlBallam | Bedoor AlSalem | Sarah Alfraih
The Design Basics Studio focused on the intersection of words, objects, places and one’s immediate reaction to them as spatial products. Students were asked to approach the design process using extensive research, design communication, design development, and finally a site-specific installation. Students submitted written reflections, stemming from collected data and found objects; mapped and surveyed sites of historic significance to investigate a final design intention. The proposed installation, or ‘Nostalgic Reactor’ was the result of a series of accumulated exercises that dealt with materiality, site, and one’s own personal subjectivities.
![EHSAN RAHIMI | FARM[MAX]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58396b7ee58c622c2530f993/1625656564377-3JMVXEGJCFV61QCUZJNQ/Teaching_02_003A.jpg)
Graduation Design STUDIO 2014
Tutors: Dr. Asseel AlRagam | Sarah Alfraih
Architecture Graduation focuses on students’ ability to translate in-depth research and analysis into a conceptual project. This studio is a year-long project where students turn their research questions into design schemes. Students are engaged in various topics that were developed rigorously throughout the semester. Students developed individual project briefs that evolved from their own explorations and interests.
DESIGN STUDIO II 2015
SOMETHING-ISM!
Tutors: Aisha AlSaqer | Sarah Alfraih | Lulu AlAwadhi
This studio focused on the discovery of the city from its basic components to its larger infrastructural implications. The objective was to comprehend the use of research precedence and how form and function can be understood, developed and integrated within the design process. The chosen site (Sharq Garages, Kuwait City) was analyzed; areas of site opportunities identified, and design interventions of varying scales proposed.
Graduation Design STUDIO 2015
Tutors: Dr. Asseel AlRagam | Sarah Alfraih
Architecture Graduation focuses on students’ ability to translate in-depth research and analysis into a conceptual project. This studio is a year-long project where students turn their research questions into design schemes. Students are engaged in various topics that were developed rigorously throughout the semester. Students developed individual project briefs that evolved from their own explorations and interests.
Design STUDIO II 2016
Spaces of Living
Tutors: Sharifa AlShalfan | Sarah Alfraih
This studio addressed the process of urbanization in Kuwait post oil discovery through exploring changes in ways of life in Kuwaiti society and relating them to the physical spaces that these behaviors are practiced, especially from the perspective of housing which has been the principal urban expansion mechanism that has prevailed since the development of the first master plan in 1952. Students focused on analysing the physical built environment of existing Kuwaiti housing typologies; be it permanent (private home and apartment) or temporary (chalet and desert camp, used on weekends and holidays). Finally, students proposed a design intervention, based on research and data gathered, to formulate an alternative housing type relevant to site conditions and contemporary needs.
