student spotlight

People brainstorming on paper against a wall

Evaluating Client Learning through Live Projects: Innovations for Reflective Practice

Craig Stott

Project description

The PhD aims to determine what learning outcomes are facilitated by Situated Learning Environments for Stakeholders engaged with Architectural Live Projects, and the influence and impact this experience has. The PhD aims to answer the following research questions;

  • What are the aims and context of Co-Design within Architectural Live Projects?
  • What is the Client Learning?
  • What influence / impact / relevance does this Learning have?

The intention is to gain an understanding of what the client groups engaged with Project Office learned through participating in the programme, and what have they used that learning to implement. This area of research is currently untouched relating to Architectural Live Projects, and thus provides a genuine creation of new knowledge.

student Biography

Craig Stott (MEng, BArch, MA, ARB) is a Project Office co-director, Architect and Senior Architecture Lecturer at the Leeds School of Architecture, Leeds Beckett University. Originally trained as a Structural Engineer, Craig’s research attempts to determine the impact of ‘Live’ project learning within architectural education by establishing its value for both the students involved and the communities who act as client for the work undertaken. The intention is to utilise the power of student design to foster ecological and social sustainability in deprived communities through this pedagogic tool. Craig is the undergraduate Technology coordinator and leads the BA studio CITYzen Agency which situates its explorations in neglected places of post-industrial cities. They consider global imperatives and local issues together, exploring their interconnection and consequence of each on the other. The studio is linked to Project Office, which is a design and research collaboration of staff and students. It is a RIBA Chartered Architecture Practice concerned with making ethical, social and resilient architecture and design.

ARCHITECTURE LIVE: PROJECT office

Architecture live projects were introduced to offer a wide variety of learning experiences for students of design disciplines. By introducing clients and community (people) with real life situations (projects) to an educational programme the consequences have had a radical impact on all participants as well as yielding a range of architecture projects.

Project Office Consultation
New Wortley Centre