Author(s): Jinmo Rhee, Pedro Veloso & Eunjoo Oh
Computational design in architectural education is often reduced to software training or programming instruction, approaches that risk widening disparities among students with varied technical backgrounds. This paper presents an alternative pedagogy that frames computation as a mode of inquiry rather than technical skill, conveyed through unplugged enactments that render abstract paradigms tangible without coding. Guided by constructivist and experiential learning principles, a graduate course was designed around four computational paradigms—rule based, agent based, parametric, and learning based systems—each introduced through embodied exercises before being extended into architectural design projects. Evaluation employed a scholarship of teaching and learning approach, drawing on student work, classroom observations, and reflections to examine how computational concepts were encountered and applied. Findings revealed that students moved from initial skepticism to conceptual recognition when ideas were enacted in tangible form. Unplugged exercises clarified underlying computational logic, reframed it as generative process rather than finished product, and established a shared vocabulary for design reasoning. However, their limitations also underscored the need to scaffold toward eventual technical fluency. The pedagogy demonstrates how unplugged approaches can broaden access to computational design thinking, cultivate dispositions of iteration and emergence, and reposition computation in architectural education as a reflective and generative mindset rather than software proficiency alone.
Volume Editors
Reed Kroloff & Francisco J. RodrÃguez-Suárez
ISBN
978-1-944214-52-4