A significant part of a student’s education takes place in the studio. The studio is a special place where students work, immersed in the design experience using various tools such as drawing, modeling, computer visualization and other tools of the discipline. Students are encouraged to spend long hours in the studio environment and interact with their peers as well as with faculty in an accessible working environment which nourishes design creativity.

The design studio is rooted in the past with eyes toward the future. The atmosphere of the studio facilitates collegial exchange and interaction among students and faculty. The essence of the studio experience is the development of design solutions under criticism. The studio follows Aristotle’s notion that “what we have to learn how to do, we learn by doing.” Thus, most learning in the studio is accomplished by doing and the emphasis of the teaching is on coaching. The instructor poses a problem and then works individually with students as they develop their design solutions. The dialogue between the coach and the student takes place in the context of student attempts to design. It makes use of actions as well as words and it depends on reciprocal reflection-in-action of telling/ listening and demonstrating/ imitating (Schon, 1987).