Comparative analysis of design studio education in architecture schools in Turkey

Architectural education is a controversial topic that we still discuss today despite the profound past of the profession. The position of architecture profession that connects two disciplines, such as engineering and art, keeps the field of practice of the profession and education in debate. Especially in the period that started with the industrial revolution, both architecture and architectural education have also undergone significant changes. While problems and objectives are constantly changing, architectural education emerges as a disputed phenomenon that is more intensely questioned than other professions. In this controversial structure of architectural education, architectural project studio is one of the most open areas of inquiry. All schools providing practical profession education, have practical lessons such as laboratories, clinics, in addition to teorical lessons. In the design studio courses, architectural education reaches a practical way. Based on the essence of constructing knowledge through experiment in design studio, it is expected that all the lessons, experiences and knowledges in the education, to find a reply and expexted the students to gain the abilities such as making analyses, thinking creative and flexible, making desicion, solving problems and createing his/her own design methods. Architecture is a profession that is related with making more than knowing so design studio is a very critic component of architectural education. Design studio courses contain all the problems of architectural education and remain a vital position to solve this issues. Consequently, in this thesis, it is aimed to create a source that can be used to improve architectural education by analyzing the architectural education and design studios in Turkey and interpretate the findings. In the first part of thesis, it is stated the purpose and hypothesis of the study. Then, in the second part, the history and development of the architectural education were examined. The current environment of architectural education and the factors influencing architectural project education are included in the third part. The methods of education and lesson plans of the selected schools from the world and from Turkey are examined in the fourth chapter. Finally with the aid of datas and analyses, inquiries, explication and some suggestions on architectural education and design studio courses were made in the last part.