How can research-based studio experience assist in tackling natural disasters?

Abstract

Natural disasters threaten human life in various ways, and a better understanding of their components reduces environmental and societal ramifications. This study seeks a pedagogical approach to contribute to such knowledge at a junior landscape architecture studio by concentrating on research-based experience. Assigning five disaster categories, including flood, drought and food, climate change, earthquake, and disaster-resilient society, the students obtained enriched knowledge on the studio process while they had difficulty in applying theoretical aspects of natural disasters to their projects, mainly gearing from analysis (upper scale) to design (lower scale) solutions. The study results propose that natural disaster education and awareness efforts should be integrated into design- and planning-related disciplines sooner rather than later.