Working with Terroir: Topiagram as a Pedagogical Thematic Structure in Architectural Design Studios
AAE 2026 Conference - Terroir: Ethical and Empathic Place for a Common Future, Preston, İngiltere, 16 - 17 Temmuz 2026, (Yayınlanmadı)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Yayınlanmadı
- Basıldığı Şehir: Preston
- Basıldığı Ülke: İngiltere
- Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
- Gazi Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
This study explores how terroir can be
rethought as an ethically and empathically grounded generative force that
informs and transforms architectural design pedagogy. To operationalise this
rethinking, “topiagram” is introduced as a thematic structure formed from
“topia” and “gram”, through which the geographical, ecological, historical,
cultural, and socio-material relations shaping spatial formation are critically
examined within studio pedagogy. While “topia” refers to imagined or
constructed spatial orders associated with place, “gram” denotes the modes of
expression—drawing, writing, and recording—through which these orders are
articulated and communicated. Through this synthesis, the topiagram delineates
an experimental field in which terroir is engaged as a relational generative
ground, cultivating and being cultivated by hyper-local spatial practices and
intelligences across diverse channels of production, representation, and
dissemination.
The study adopts a studio-based pedagogical
inquiry through comparative analysis of three studio series conducted under the
shared theme of the topiagram by the same coordinators across different problem
fields and student cohorts. By maintaining the thematic framework constant
while varying contextual conditions, the research examines its operative role
in shaping the interrelated design studio practices of researching, thinking,
and doing/making within the design studio. The analysis focuses on transformations
in contextual grounding, conceptual derivation, and spatial structuring,
tracing how the topiagram mediates and reorganises these practices across
diverse studio settings rather than evaluating individual performance.
The findings indicate that the pedagogical
value of the topiagram lies not in singular outcomes but in its capacity to
reconfigure the studio’s educational logic. Rather than generating formal
diversity, the thematic structure sustains a generative interplay between
contextual inquiry, conceptual derivation, and spatial structuring, through
which critically situated, and empathically grounded spatial formations emerge.
Its pedagogical contribution thus resides in instituting a generative and
transferable operative logic that advances experimental, critically grounded,
hyper-local spatial practice.