Study on Teaching Practice of the "Site Design" Course

College of City Construction, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China

Abstract "Site Design" is a very important basic course of architecture, covers all design except building monomer design, and is an important course related to the organic integration of architecture and surrounding environment. At present, some problems in teaching of the site design are as below: contradiction between teaching content and arrangement of teaching time, separation of theory teaching from design practice, and teaching methods not integrating with the latest design software. For these teaching issues, some reform measures are put forward for the teaching of "Site Design", such as adjusting teaching syllabus, teaching content, arrangement of teaching time, teaching method and teaching means. We hope to develop students’ holistic thinking in site design and the holistic design concept of site design and architectural design.

Key words Site design, Architectural design, Holistic thinking, Holistic design concept

1 Introduction

The course "Site Design" was first developed in landscape architecture, and it is a relatively systematic discipline in landscape architecture. In architecture, urban planning and other specialties, site design has not been arranged as an independent course. Since the system of professional certification for registered architects has been implemented in China in 1994, "Site Design" is included in important subject of the registration examination, and architecture major in colleges and universities regards it as an important professional course. With construction and development of the course, "Site Design" has become an important part of the course of architectural design methods. Due to complicated course content and limited teaching time, "Site Design" also becomes key point and difficulty in teaching of architecture-related specialty.

2 Training objectives

In theGuidingSpecialtyStandardsforArchitectureUndergraduatesinNationalCollegesandUniversities(2013), the knowledge related to site design is set up in the core knowledge unit of architectural design. It is divided into five knowledge points: concepts of site and environment, classification of site topography, urban-rural environment, elements involved in the site, environmental impact factors and site design[1]. By learning the course, it makes students majoring in architecture understand the position and function of site design, familiar with methods and procedures of site design, grasp the methods and relevant norms of site design of civil building. What is more important is to realize the cultivation of holistic thinking, establish holistic thinking of site and environment, site and and architecture, sites and city, site and landscape, and develop students’ ability to investigate and analyze the site, and ability to apply technical specifications to fulfill requirements of site design based on investigation and analysis results.

3 Practical problems in the teaching of the course "Site Design"

3.1 The contradiction between complicated curriculum content and limited teaching timeContent of the course "Site Design" includes site layout, vertical design, road design, landscape greening design, and comprehensive design of pipeline, and it involves all design contents except architectural monomer design itself. Moreover, these contents could become a separate course. It is a very difficult thing to give a thorough account of all aspects of knowledge in a short course. So in the teaching process of site design course in many colleges and universities, teachers often only give a point-to-point introduction to each content, and are unable to explain in depth and detail.

3.2 The contradiction between theory learning and design practiceSite is the starting and end point of all architectural activities, and architecture is produced in the process of transformation from site to place. As main course of architecture, architectural design continues through whole college period. Task book of each architectural design course must be given the appropriate site environment, or simple or complex, or real site or assumed environment. But viewing all task books, the task book assuming the site environment still occupies the majority. Generally, this type of hypothetical site has fewer limitations, which is very unfavorable for cultivating students’ ability to apply knowledge of site design. Natural conditions of site design of actual project generally contain topography, climate, hydrogeology,etc. Besides natural conditions, there are also necessary spiritual and cultural conditions in the site. Kevin Lynch, an American architect, said that "site is the art of arranging buildings on the base, shaping the space between buildings, and linking architecture, engineering, landscape architecture and urban planning. Its goal contains moral and aesthetic aspects: creating places to beautify daily life-making residents feel free and give them a sense of the realm in which they live"[2]. These conditions are generally more complex than the assumed site, with more careful expression. The assumed site generally only assumes climate conditions, or takes the climate conditions of the region, and the terrain is generally more flat. On the other hand, the assumption of the base site is a rough environmental condition, and students’ understanding of site design is not as profound as that of the actual site. The treatment of site design is too simplified and rough, and main focus is on the design of the building itself, but it neglects the relationship between building and site, finally causing that site design course is seriously out of touch with architectural design practice.

3.3 The contradiction between the content requirements of the registration examination and content requirements of actual site designWith establishment and improvement of the examination system for registered architects, the content of site design in the examination of registered architects is also more perfect. So, more and more colleges and universities are emphasizing the content of registration examination to guide the teaching of site design. In site design examination of registered architect, architect is inspected via site analysis, site profile, outdoor parking lot layout, site topography design and site layout. In the last two years, the outdoor parking lot has been cancelled, and original five questions changes into four questions. Site analysis mainly inspects architects’ understanding of various control lines in urban planning, building fire protection, sunshine and other related norms. Site profile inspects architects controlling the scope and height of buildings according to site conditions and relevant specifications. Topography design requires architects to design topography of the given site according to the requirements of topographic elevation, topographic gradient and municipal drainage. Site layout indicates general graphic design of a class or group of buildings in the given site, containing building layout, greening design, road organization and so on. The aim is to inspect basic skills for architects to make use of site design knowledge to conduct overall site layout. Seen from the four questions, a great deal of content involved in vocational qualification examination is the current norms and requirements, and drawing requirements and evaluation system are too rigid, which is not very favorable for basic education of architecture[3]. In site design course, students should learn to observe and analyze the surrounding topography and physiognomy and the relationship among the surrounding buildings in detail, and finally carry out judgement, and each building or building function is arranged in a suitable site. It is not conducive to the cultivation of students’ ability to deal with the site correctly, nor to the cultivation of students’ overall thinking in site design to guide the teaching of site design course excessively based on the examination of registered architects[4].

4 Exploration of course reform of the "Site Design"

4.1 Adjusting the syllabus and embodying the importance of site designDuring the five-year study of the university, site design is often used as a specialty-limited course due to the setting up problem of teaching system, and is set up in the fourth year. On the other hand, formal contact of design professional course in architecture starts from sophomore year. In this way, students in architecture have little contact with systematic and professional site design content from the first to the fourth year. In general teaching process of architecture, it often only pays attention to the design of building monomer and neglects the relationship between building and site. It causes that many design schemes have confused site relations, do not carry out vertical design, and remain in the planning stage; traffic handling is unreasonable, and various streamline organizations are chaotic, and it lacks systematic and comprehensive control on dispersion space treatment, building spacing, fire protection, ventilation, and sunshine, does not mention the attention paid to the cultural and aesthetic attributes of site elements and place spirit[5]. Therefore, it should fuse relevant contents of site design in the teaching outline of architecture specialty course, which has important significance for systematic establishment of students’ knowledge and cultivation of students’ overall ability, integral thinking and comprehensive design ability.

4.2 Adjustment of teaching content and timeAccording to setting requirements for site design course in theGuidingSpecialtyStandardsforArchitectureUndergraduatesinNationalCollegesandUniversities(2013), as basic knowledge and technical preparation for external space design of building monomer and group, theory classes should usually be offered in the lower grades of architecture-related majors. At present, site design course in many colleges and universities is arranged in the fourth stage, but students have been exposed to architectural design course since their freshmen or sophomores. They start to carry out building monomer design without foundation knowledge of site, which lasts until the fourth year. The students trained in this way are not enough to understand and pay attention to the site, and the architectural scheme only focuses on the single part and lacks the organic integration with the site. So, we suggest that the course site design should be arranged in freshman and sophomore years as much as possible, and at least theoretical knowledge can be delegated to lower grades, making students understand site, analyze and judge base and its surrounding environment in design process.

4.3 Reform in teaching methods: teaching in a holistic way of thinkingBesides the teaching manner of theory combining with practice, teaching focus of site design course is explaining the basic elements of the site, the relationship between the elements, how to deal with the distribution of the elements and so on. Combining with practice curriculum design, theory is combined with design practice, forming a teaching method of holistic thinking mode.

Site design should combine with architectural design course. Pre-planning and design of architectural scheme are conducted by site reconnaissance, analysis and judgment, making students embody that site design is the pre-planning and basic work of architectural design. It requires that practical topography is used as much as possible in the course of architectural design, and students can be given ample opportunities for field research, to understand site and its surrounding environment. It makes students understand whole process of site design and its important role and significance in whole design process, thereby cultivating a design method of holistic thinking[6]. Instead of as before, all architectural designs begin from monomer design and end with monomer design, lacking attention to the site. Meanwhile, it also improves students’ interest in site design and architectural design.

4.4 Renewal of teaching meansPrevious teaching methods are mostly purely theoretical study, and teachers tells the theory according to the teaching plan, and occasionally provide pictures for supplementary explanations. This traditional teaching method is far from meeting the needs of students. We think that innovative design of teaching means should be conducted, and innovation should also be adopted in practical design. For example, Su and Rhino design software are used to simulate and reappear actual terrain, and the relationship between the optimal site and architecture is found via design comparison. In theory teaching, pictures should be widely used for theoretical explanation, and field investigation should be supplemented for on-site experience, to understand the combination relation among the elements in site design. In design practice, it should use computer and corresponding software to conduct three-dimensional visualization scheme of terrain, and analyze building model from site, to more intuitively handle the relationship between site elements and buildings.

5 Conclusions

The course site design mainly started from registered architect examination increasing site design subject, and it’s only 25 years now. Compared with opening time of professional courses such as architectural design, it is a relatively new course. In 25-year teaching process, the course has been greatly developed, but there are also many problems. In this paper, the problems in teaching are dug, and corresponding solution methods are proposed. Combining the newest design software, it strives to cultivate students’ overall thinking of site design and establish the overall design concept of site and building, which is favorable for systematic learning of architecture major.