Cases study houses: an alternative teaching model for the undergraduate final year project

This paper details the undertaking of the undergraduate final year project (2009 - 2010) of several students enrolled on the Specialisation in Architectural Projects, part of the Architecture degree programme at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Manizales). The purpose of this paper’s authors documenting the experience was to put to the test a method of teaching/learning for the final year project workshop. This is based on a teaching theory that revolves around resolving problems of form through the recognition and understanding of universal solutions that exist in the works of the architectural greats. In juxtaposition with the idea of contemporary architectural methodology, which is based on the “execution of the author’s ideas“, the function of this workshop is to recover the methods of Modern architecture. Within this field, a greater importance is placed upon the following: orientation and position of the building on the site, the solution to the proyect’s programmatic requirements, the structural concept, the specifications and approach that are consistent with what the space demands, applied to a specific case study house.