Establishment of an appropriate project brief is crucial in the design studio environment as it defines a project’s parameters and impacts the subsequent execution of studio exercise. Many students often experience difficulties implementing the multifaceted text-based nature of project briefs into the dynamic features of a design process. Hence, creating a brief that captures and conveys the essences of a studio project has been a challenging task that directly correlates with studio teaching and learning activities.
This paper presents a studio experimental exercise that seeks an alternative approach for preparing studio project briefs. 20 second-year undergraduates are involved in this experimental task through a spatial design project. The principles of Instructional System Design (ISD) and Gagne’s instructional theory related to the learning process were selected as guiding frameworks. During the 5-week studio exercise, students each selected a renowned building/place as their case study. They examined tangible and intangible characters through the use of objective descriptions and subjective interpretations in order to expose the original intentions of the designs. By visualizing and identifying the object’s original intention through a combination of diagrams, images and concise notes, students can finally develop a set of the objectives, criteria and desirable outcome, which are the critical components of a project brief. This backward induction offers an alternative approach for the process of preparing a studio project brief, and critically develops students’ abilities to create a more relevant project brief in design studio environment.