Inculcating Collaborative Skills in Architecture Students Through a Design-Build Studio

When conducted in real settings, design-build studios facilitate learning through interactions with people, users, clients, regulatory bodies, and so on. As stated in National Education Policy 2020(NEP)—“In particular, languages influence the way people of a given culture speak with others, including with family members, authority figures, peers, and strangers, and influence the tone of the conversation”, through the institute and industry collaboration the students realize the power of language. Students in a design-build exercise often learn to employ phrases and tones familiar to the subjects to chronicle the opinions and experiences of the actual users. Working in a real-world situation can be a herculean endeavor, and thus, communication, teamwork, and creating rapport with multiple stakeholders may be required in addition to communication. Such projects are consistent with the NEP's goal of instilling life skills such as communication, cooperation, teamwork, and resilience. This article presents a case study and conclusions from a design-build studio held at Bhopal's School of Planning and Architecture. The students’ perspectives on the design-build studio were collected through an open-ended survey. The findings suggest that students’ learning extends beyond the confines of the regular architectural studio. The research results indicate the presence of collaborative learning, as well as three subcategories: teamwork skills, leadership skills, and professional skills.