ARCHITECTURE EDUCATION
In 2022, the architecture programme at Mokpo’s gifted education centre brought elementary and middle school students into the process of designing and making. A shared introduction to architecture led into two projects: pasta bridges for elementary students and houses within a 3 × 3 × 3 metre space for middle school students.
Beginning with how architecture is made, the classes moved into hands-on investigations of space and structure. Explanations, design work and model making gave students different ways to develop and express their own ideas.
Shared introduction — Understanding architecture
Elementary — Building bridges with pasta
Elementary students designed bridges and built models using pasta. Working in groups, they discussed ideas and connected individual members to develop their structures. Testing the bridges and presenting their intentions and results made room to observe, question and rethink what they had built.
Middle school — A house within 3 × 3 × 3 m
Middle school students imagined a house within a space measuring 3 metres in width, depth and height. They considered how to organise the space they needed, then explored its form through SketchUp modelling. A shared set of dimensions became the starting point for different ideas.
From digital space to a physical model
The houses developed on screen took shape as physical models. Cutting and assembling materials allowed students to examine walls, openings and spatial arrangements firsthand. Moving between digital and physical work, they explained their ideas and worked through questions that emerged during making.
Shared constraints, different ideas
The completed models record different interpretations of the same spatial limits. Beyond learning about architecture through explanation, students explored space and structure by designing and making for themselves.
