الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The beginning studio is the entry level, the place sometimes described as the architectural kindergarten, where students explore and form their first ideas about design and architecture in a manner indifferent from the way toddlers experience learning in kindergarten. Bearing in mind that the studio’s pattern of education is normally at odd with the traditional one, students frequently meet freedom to explore with confusion. Instructors know that breaking the barriers between students and freethinking as well as overcoming their accumulated misperceptions are of the most salient issues for students to successfully transit into design problem solving. It is also the most difficult task for instructors while planning for the course of the beginning design studio.
Motivated by these problems, the research tries to find the right approach to set in place positive pattern of learning and inquiry not only necessary to design disciplines but that can sustain the students’ engagement in design as well. The thesis accordingly focuses on the structure of the first year design program and more precisely on crafting the first year projects within the playful project-based approach. Based on the study of both the beginner’s mind and the significant nature of architectural design, the work presented in this thesis develops a methodology capable of providing tutors with an elaborated framework to guide them to craft (shape) the beginning year projects. This aims mainly at developing the essential abilities, experience and skills that enable students to target the ill¬structured design problems.
A thinking type plan for the specific thinking behaviours to target, a complexity level plan that determines the intricacy of the selected design problems as well as a Cognitive skill plan that addresses the students cognitive skills and processes, all three plans are of the main factors considered by the researcher in the establishment of an effective beginning studio structure.
The pedagogical message of the structure is carried out in the studio by shape grammars, benefiting from its theoretical potential as a computational model. The implementation of the grammatical model in the beginning studio is discussed, evaluated and criticised according to its suitability for design education, the recipients’ minds (the beginners) as well as the project based learning approach. Accordingly, the implemented grammar models are more general versions, open and less descriptive to conform to the structure’s main aims and objectives.
Three workshops are planned and applied on the beginning students in both Strathclyde University in the United Kingdom and Alexandria University in Egypt during the structure’s main stages of recognition, production and evaluation. Evidence supporting the successful implementation of this model is presented through the collective work of both groups of beginners. Finally, it is assumed that the application of the proposed structure could help students gain some kind of mastery over their design skills, which might enable them to further tackle more complex design problems in a formulated and well-structured manner.