Learning to see as an architect: Actions and semiotic resources in critique sessions

Abstract: This study investigates so called critique sessions at a school of architecture. The questions addressed and answered in this study are: How are students and professionals interacting during a critique session? How are problems of understanding solved during a critique session? And, how can a 3D-model be used to present a project in a critique session? The study has its foundation in the naturalistic tradition of studying talk-in-interaction and ethnomethodology. This foundation is represented mainly on the works by Charles Goodwin. The study makes use of video-recordings as a primary source where interaction and encompassing activities occur. The analysis concerns the collaboration between students and professionals in the act of jointly making a city-planning project understandable by interaction done by a range of semiotic resources. This raises the question of how interaction is performed during critique sessions. In the first part of the study two-dimensional sequential pictures are used, and in the second part of the study the entering of a perspective is done by the use of a 3D-model. By using such a tool, actions take place inside a virtually constructed spatial context. The study investigates how moving about inside such a closed space is performed, and how pointing is done within the space. The results of the study are discussed in relation to the theoretical framework of the study. Questions debated about in the discussion are how a perspective can be used to facilitate understanding, in what way problems are solved during critique sessions and how a 3D-tool can be used to present a project during a critique session. This is then related to how this 3 technology can be utilized in presentation of projects and how the results relate to professional vision.