Networking: media, representation and architecture

Paper presented at the 5th Conference of Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning, Eindhoven, 2000 In this paper we present a pedagogic work, carried out in a third year architecture course, focused on the relationship between teaching content and media. The subject-matter of the course is the concept of representation; an eminently philosophical issue which transcends the limits of a particular discipline.The media that have been used are mostly the web, along with other standard programs to process textand images, create models and animations. The core of this research work is the course ‘Sistemas de Representación’, which has taken place for the first time in the academic year 1999/00. The course is structured in six themes, each one standing for a system of representation: TEXT, FIGURE, OBJECT, IMAGE, SPACE and LIGHT. Within every system, a variety of topics dealing with the concept of representation are addressed in an interdisciplinary manner. A web based learning environment named NETWORKING has been created especially for the course. This environment allows students to perform a variety of collaborative works: drawing visual and linguistic relationships, developing further the works of other students, and participating in collective processes of form generation and space perception.