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Idea by

Julia Kirton

Julia Kirton has been working as a professional architect for more than 13 years on projects ranging from low-income housing to grand estates, as well as churches, hotels, and assisted-living facilities. Julia studied building and civil engineering in Barbados and subsequently architecture in Jamaica. She then proceeded to attend the University at Buffalo (SUNY) on a Fulbright Scholarship, where she graduated magna cum laude with a master’s degree in architecture.

Call for ideas 2019

Con->Text: Text as Context - Reading and Writing as a Pedagogical Tool Exploring Place


Con->Text: Text as Context - Reading and Writing as a Pedagogical Tool Exploring Place


This paper demonstrates how structured reading, writing, and an interactive modeling experience during the design process, go hand-in-hand with building self-confidence in students.
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Type of project
  • Site-specific cases

Design instructors are responsible for providing beginning students with a method to engage in the design process. Every design student needs a curriculum program guided by a step-by-step progression that builds their respect for analy-sis, design methodology, rigor and self-confidence. In this stu-dio, “reading and writing to think” are the tools of exploration, employed as a pedagogical strategy where students build a strong design connection between literature and context and vice versa. This process allows students to explore themselves and their inner thoughts resulting in the unexpected, with the results of this study measured by compiling data gathered through surveillance of instructional events, instructor discus-sions, and assessments of content knowledge assessment; with the objective to show that “reading and writing to think” is crucial for the success of the first-year architecture student.

Con->Text: Text as Context - Reading and Writing as a Pedagogical Tool Exploring Place


Con->Text: Text as Context - Reading and Writing as a Pedagogical Tool Exploring Place


This paper demonstrates how structured reading, writing, and an interactive modeling experience during the design process, go hand-in-hand with building self-confidence in students.
File under
Type of project
  • Site-specific cases

Design instructors are responsible for providing beginning students with a method to engage in the design process. Every design student needs a curriculum program guided by a step-by-step progression that builds their respect for analy-sis, design methodology, rigor and self-confidence. In this stu-dio, “reading and writing to think” are the tools of exploration, employed as a pedagogical strategy where students build a strong design connection between literature and context and vice versa. This process allows students to explore themselves and their inner thoughts resulting in the unexpected, with the results of this study measured by compiling data gathered through surveillance of instructional events, instructor discus-sions, and assessments of content knowledge assessment; with the objective to show that “reading and writing to think” is crucial for the success of the first-year architecture student.


Idea by

Julia Kirton
Julia Kirton has been working as a professional architect for more than 13 years on projects ranging from low-income housing to grand estates, as well as churches, hotels, and assisted-living facilities. Julia studied building and civil engineering in Barbados and subsequently architecture in Jamaica. She then proceeded to attend the University at Buffalo (SUNY) on a Fulbright Scholarship, where she graduated magna cum laude with a master’s degree in architecture.