The PopUp Workshop, learning with material

Abstract

The PopUp Workshop is a prototyping space where students can experiment with projects and their implementation
on a one-to-one scale using real materials. The workshop promotes an interdisciplinary and experimental pedagogy in which learning by doing is central. This article presents four pedagogical approaches used in the PopUp Workshop:
* Verification and Modification. Students learn to verify and develop theoretical teachings through physical experimentation. They test the feasibility of implementation and assembly design in full-scale realizations. Based on observations and difficulties encountered, variants are developed.

* Learning through Play. Students discover design principles, such as ruled surfaces or reciprocal structures, through playful exercises. Developing several variants simultaneously highlights their expressive richness.

* Thinking with materials. Designing with materials turns the project process upside down. Form is determined as much by the interaction between the designer and the material as by other parameters, such as location or function.
The goal is exploration rather than knowledge; experimentation and failure drive research. The focus is not on mastering a technique, but on establishing a research method and discovering creative potential.

* Design, build, inhabit. Working on projects in public spaces gives students the opportunity to not only build a project but also live in it and test the developed concepts. Dialogue with clients, collective work, coordination, definition of common objectives, and consultation with craftsmen are all valuable experiences.

The PopUp workshop provides an opportunity to develop a greater sensitivity to materiality, as well as to collective and transdisciplinary work. Students must learn to handle the unknown and seize the opportunities that arise during the project’s development. The method itself is more important than working with materials: working directly with matter makes us more observant, attentive, and accepting. It leads us to welcome inspiration from what’s already there.

Buri, Hani. “La matière qui pense : table ronde sur “l’enseignement à l’atelier PopUp””. Revue Tracés n0. 3543 (2024) 30-33
Ingold, Tim. Making : Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2013.