Design Students’ Affordance-based Messages in an Undesigned Design Studio

In this study, as PhD candidates and teaching assistants working in the Interior Architecture Department of the Faculty of Architecture at Istanbul Technical University (ITU) we aimed to explore the interrelationship between the students’ messages and the studio’s affordances by using participant observation and photovoice methods in the classes we attended in the same physical space. We used the photographs taken by us during the studio courses as the central data set to explore the messages triggered by the studio affordances, which are formed based on the complex environments and relationships created by the limited physical facilities of our design studio, the high student quotas and the large project groups using the same physical space at different and even the exact times. Through collaborative commentary and reflective writing, we produced written and visual reports on the final themes at the conclusion of the analysis process. Finally, we concluded that the four main themes, namely, direct message, indirect message, transcendent message, and no message but action, guided us in exploring and explaining our studio’s affordances.