Visual Literacy in Architecture Education
Matthew Dudzik
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Abstract. Visual literacy aids architecture and design students in decoding embedded meaning in our built environment, helping them address a myriad of issues from construction to cultural resonance. As a creative field, this built visual lexicon creates a foundation from which to vet project-specific issues, allowing students to reinterpret visual data in the process of creation. Colin McGinn (2004), in his book Mindsight posits that the phenomenon of envisioning new realities from the internal manipulation of previous visual experience is cognitive imagination. The question becomes how students can be taught to see in such a way that they intuitively look beyond visual composition to analyze what forces socially, environmentally, economically, politically, and culturally drove the design. As global practice has simply become design practice, architects and designers must find ways to address culture and bring a voice to those who are marginalized in our built environment. Architecture responds to the needs of the people, and as designers increasingly practice in cultures other than their own, they need to find ways to connect with disparate groups deeply. Traditional research methods play an essential role in this process, but as architecture is experientially understood, the study of visual literacy can unlock the three-dimensional manifestation of the inherent complex social and cultural data locked within architecture. Like the cyclical design process itself, this method of inquiry and analysis moves from one method (visual or traditional) and back again building in refinement as each cycle adds another layer of information. Yet to propel the field forward and especially to address marginalized voices this process must also allow for the translation of this information and the creation of new realities. This chapter investigates design education by studying the use of cultural coding and cognitive imagination in architecture education.
Keywords: Architecture education, culture, design process, imagination, visual literacy