The Common First Year Studio in a Hot-desking Age: An Explorative Study on the Studio Environment and Learning

Abstract

This paper uses the Common First Year Studio at Georgia Institute of Technology as an example to explore the impact of the physical environment, specifically the hot-desking studio, on communication, studio culture, and learning. The focus of this explorative research is to describe how a hot-desking studio space is actually utilised, where and how students communicate with each other, how knowledge possibly transfers among students, and the resultant students' perception of a learning community. We have collected both qualitative data through a one-year ethnographic observation and quantitative data through behavioural mappings and questionnaires. The results show that the hot-desking studio provides opportunities for informal interactions both within and across groups. It can help formulate the sense of community at the group level instead of at the individual level. Hot-desking studios also present some challenges to first year design students, since they rely heavily on physical presentations for knowledge transfer. To make up for the lack of work surfaces, displays and artefacts should be placed wisely to help in transmitting knowledge in hot-desking studios. Limitations of the research design for this study and implications of the research findings for future studio design are discussed.