Prototyping as a tool and a process in architectural education

Prototyping for architecture, as a concept and practice, exceeds generating a tangible working-model as in other fields. It encompasses a holistic, instructive process in which design continues while building and by which simultaneous experience can be achieved. Also, prototyping can become an action that helps to understand the fluctuating field of architecture between theory and practice. The goal of this thesis work is to identify the benefits of incorporating the concept of prototyping to architectural studies, mainly architectural education. Over time, the architectural knowledge transferred from its master to its apprentice has turned into a formal system given in its schools at the intersection of art and engineering. In contrast to this situation, in the educational process, not only creating the architectural product praxis as a design on paper but also imagining the construction processes and after, enables the designer and the student to face different field potentials and produce solutions. Programs that include building in their education curricula are critical examples in this regard. In this thesis, the construction practice will be read through prototype production and the assessment will be done utilizing information on various Design-Build Programs. In addition, design-construction-post will be evaluated as a process in a response to the changing architect subject and architectural practice in the 21st century. Five programs from five different geographies, namely AA Hooke Park, ITKE University of Stuttgart, Rural Studio, Ciudad Abierta/Open City, and MEF FADA DBS/AAP, which care about learning by building; prototyping approaches, learning processes, participants, and tools they use will be examined.