The following essay booklet represents the final explorative outcome of this course. I use my own opinions, experiences and past work to drive a discussion on how student archives can impact the culture of studios.
Part of Archives and Data by Dr. Damjan Kokalevski, Chair of Architecture and Curatorial Practice.
chapter one // research question and objectives
foreword, research question and objectives
chapter two // background to archives
historical context of student archives
evoloution of student archives in university comparative analysis of archives in different diciplines role of documentation in academic and creative enviroments
chapter three // archival practices in education
chapter four // methodology
archival
chapter five // findings
creation and mainatence of student archives
utilisation of student archives
cultural and social dynamics
chapter six // prescedent studies
prescedent one
prescedent two
prescedent three
chapter
FOREWORD
Archiving is a method that has always felt natural to me, it’s a soothing process, the sorting and compiling of materials under labels. As a child I remember, the wooden drawers at the Natural History Museum. Pull one out and find a systematic grid of nature’s specimens, perfectly labelled and set out along x’s and y’s. Poisonous frogs, sleeping gently next to their butterfly prey in defiance of all natural order. What lucky person’s job was it to make arrangements for the world in such a small yet compelling way?
On the 7th of July, we wandered as a class, down flights of stairs into the basement floors of TUMS architectural archives. The sterile rooms, with monotonous lighting and high ceilings, told you something important was happening here. Without our knowledge, the same soothing process was unfolding beneath our feet.
In Architecture school, we as students embark on a path of technical, creative and cultural exploration. Our growth stems from what we see in the world around us, and the references we can pull from. Central to this educational process are archives, which influence the academic journey and creative approaches of architecture students. Archives should be central to the creative process as a student; yet they sometimes lie forgotten, somewhere outside the sphere of educational significance. A resource which once was central to the educational process has somehow lost its way in the technological age.
This essay aims to explore the significance of these archives, posing the question:
What can student archives reveal about the educational and cultural practices in architecture schools?
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The objectives are threefold: to examine the creation, maintenance, and utilization of student archives; to understand their impact on students’ learning experiences and professional development; and to explore the cultural and social dynamics reflected in these archives.
Archiving is a method that has always felt natural to me, it’s a soothing process, the sorting and compiling of materials under labels that make them into collectives. As a child I remember, the wooden draws at the Natural History Museum. Pull one out and find a systematic grid of nature’s specimens, perfectly labelled and set out along x’s and y’s. Poisonous frogs, sleeping gently next to their butterfly prey in defiance of all-natural order. What lucky person’s job was it to make arrangements for the world in such a small yet compelling way?
On the 7th of July, we wondered as a class, down flights of stairs into the basement floors of TUMS architectural archives. The sterile rooms, with monotonous lighting and high ceilings, told you something important was happening here. Without our knowledge, the same soothing process was unfolding beneath our feet.
When in Architecture school, we as students embark on a path of technical, creative and cultural exploration. Our growth stems from what we see in the world around us, and the references we can pull from. Central to this educational process are student archives, which document the academic journey and creative processes of architecture students. Archives should be central to the creative process as a student; they sometimes lie forgotten, somewhere outside the sphere of educational significance. A resource which once was central to the educational process has somehow lost its way in the technological age.
PAGE NOT FOUND THE PAGE THAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR MIGHT HAVE BEEN REMOVED, HAD ITS NAME CHANGED OR IS UNAVALIABLETEMPORARILY
This essay aims to explore the significance of these archives, posing the question:
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The objectives are threefold: to examine the creation, maintenance, and utilization of student archives; to understand their impact on students’ learning experiences and professional development; and to explore the cultural and social dynamics
BACKGROUND TO ARCHIVES
PART ONE
HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF STUDENT ARCHIVES
Historically, archives served as repositories of professional work, capturing the progression of design thinking and technical skills on physical mediums. Archivists worked to collect these materials into a huge archive of paper drawings, prints, and physical models. Often these material deposits spanned vast underground repositories, for students to access through sharing vaults, shelves, and boxes. Although susceptible to time, these forms of material are much more resilient than modern media forms, with a longer and more predictable lifespan. Archivists worked, aware of the timescale they had to preserve materials, but with other constraints such as storage space, and maintaining accessibility posing big questions about what material should be selected for the archive. The same constraints affect modern digital archivists but now in the world of data.
Figure 1: Photograph of the temporary exhibition of drawings in the Salle de Melpomène in the École, ca. 1920–30.
Figure 2: Central courtyard of the École des Beaux-Arts with plaster casts and architectural models, 1937
The notion of archives in architecture has evolved significantly over time, as the outputs of our work rapidly advance, however, historically there are few precedents or standards for how an archive of students’ work should function. It seems that, similarly to now, the weight of expectations of archiving architectural education, falls on the students. Often Exhibitions are the closest many universities come to offering a functioning and accessible student archive. Exhibitions of student work can be traced back to the first architectural school ‘Académie Royale d’Architecture’, which often showed the results of student competitions and classes to the public (The Beaux-Arts Tradition 2024). These exhibitions offer a temporary view into a student body’s skills and creative outcomes but do little to record their efforts in time in mediums other than photographs or private collections.
EVOLUTION OF STUDENT ARCHIVES IN UNIVERSITY.
In adjustment with time, Archiving has changed, as has the role of an architect and the education of students. Although, the rate at which these disciplines have changed throughout the rapidly advancing 21st Century, has not been equal. A disconnect has formed, where the immense volume of references available to young designers grows, its value depreciates, as less emphasis is placed on ensuring the longevity of this knowledge.
Although knowledge can be transferred in many ways, data is now the favoured vessel. This digitisation of information, by converting complex amounts of data into readable formats, began to impact the field of architecture in the 1980’s. The rapid pace of this shift to digital design over physical forms spurred a radical change in thinking and design, and archiving was seemingly left behind.
There are several reasons to blame for the undervalue of digital content. Perhaps it’s the natural assumption that what is created on the internet is there forever, or foreboding warnings from our parents and teachers about ‘digital footprints’, that has created this illusionary eternal accessibility of the digital. While architecture students become well versed in the practice of ‘backups’ and file saves many feed into the false security of their file’s longevity, closing files after projects without a second thought.
These challenges although constantly shifting, should be anticipated as the dangers of ignoring them are already by data first extinct digital species; legacy media.
Initially, legacy digital media such as floppy disks, lost formats and obsolete media types introduced many new challenges to archivists. The primary being that the timeframe, in which data must be archived had significantly
Initially, legacy digital media such as floppy disks, lost formats and obsolete media types introduced many new challenges to archivists. The primary being that the timeframe, in which data must be archived had significantly reduced, and often to access legacy media the environment in which each media type was created needs to be replicated
The sustainability of maintaining the original environments that data was created in, such as old computers, seems to be a lofty and unsustainable goal when dealing with the gigantic quantities of data produced by even singular architectural projects.
The same issues have progressed into today’s architectural practice. Software advances each year with new and incompatible versions. Casting aside old file formats, with little regard for how they can be accessed in the future. In conclusion, constant unknown technological hurdles leave only room the speculate on what and how archiving will occur, but still, the underlying issue of limited knowledge within student populations exists.
Figure 3: The extinct data trasfer form aka a floppy disk. More extinct data forms to follow.
BACKGROUND TO ARCHIVES PART TWO
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ARCHIVES IN DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES.
Despite the issues facing archivists of digital media, the process of its archival also comes with exciting opportunities for growth and redevelopment of what being an archivist means. When exploring what digital archives look like in other creative disciplines, I came across a new breed of creative preservation. Within the modern creative landscape, archives have been used to reshape narratives. Online archives such as the Cyberfeminism Index began their days as open-source spreadsheets and are an illuminating example of the potential for archiving to be collaborative, grassroots and radical (Into the archive! We dive into the act of creative preservation today 2024). Creator, Mindy Seu predicts that 60% of the current archive is founded on crowdsourced material. This opens the gaps of who can contribute, to almost anyone with a computer. No longer is archiving solely the role of a few individuals in society, its accessibility has opened up due to digital contribution. Because of this, Mindy also views ‘grassroots’ archives as an “important strategy for people wanting to revise histories” (Into the archive! We dive
5: The front cover of the published edition of the Cyber-feminism Index by Mindy Seu
‘winner’ centralised structure of more traditional
Figure
IMPORTANCES OF ARCHIVAL PRACTICES IN EDUCATION
ROLE OF DOCUMENTATION IN ACADEMIC AND CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT
Importances of Archival Practices in Education
When trying to understand the role of documentation in academic and creative development, I found it most insightful to look at examples from my archives. This helped me better understand the personal role archives have had in my own academic and creative development. It also had the benefit of allowing me to foster a deeper understanding of my artistic identity. In Architecture school we are taught to work in process, building ideas in layers that are often just as important as the outcome. We document each project’s development from start to completion, without knowing what parts of the project, may later become significant. Unknowingly we follow the same principles as archivists. Creating an index of data, before learning what use it could have to yourself in the future. It almost functions as a sacred rule “Nothing should ever be deleted”. We end up with hundreds of files of entangled data for each project, but often not organised in a way that is accessible for revisting .
Figure 6: Process work from a project.
The last step of every project should be to look through it as if an archivist, overseeing the sum of our work. It becomes our role to determine what has value and what should be saved or not. I find it cathartic to go back and be critical about parts of the project, often using parts that speak to me to help create something new.
Archives are often used as a base point to improve and progress designs and concepts on an individual and collective level. I use my past work to focus the direction of my creativity into an identity that is unique to me. On a collective level, a student archive would allow students to determine the value of their work, allowing their history to be saved. Students could build upon each other’s designs, in ways that are not predictable but could spur the evolution of design and concept in projects. Design assignments from this could become continuous living works. Although I believe there should be a greater emphasis in Architecture School towards learning how to archive individual work, ultimately, histories are communal, therefore requiring a collective to exist. Universities can expand on the important work that students are doing in their classes, while simultaneously changing the culture.
Archival Methods Observations
1. Physical Material Analysis: Analysing the content of student archives including drawings, models and project reports
2.Digital Material Analysis: Analysis of ways of archiving digital material, including CAD, TXT and PDF.
3. Selection: Notes and thoughts on selection criteria for student and personal archives.
For the following section I examine the methodology behind how I archive different materials, to gain more insight into issues typical students may face when archiving their own personal content.
PDF/A
This is an archivable ISO standard for permanent archiving of formatted documents. While this file format is not guaranteed to be forever accessible, it is currently the highest archivable standard for text. It works by dispensing certain functions and embedding all the fonts in the document. PDF files can be created in this format of a copy can be saved as a PDF/A for safekeeping.
PLAIN TEXT
A suitable archivable format for text that has no graphical component. This format only supports text characters and whitespace characters. No style information is included, so this format may not be the most useful for the needs of architecture students. (includes *.txt, *.asc, *.c, *.h, *.cpp, *.m, *.py, *.r etc.)
XML
‘Extensible Markup Language’ is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.
TIFF
This format must be saved as uncompressed to be archivable, preferentially TIFF 6.0, Part 1: baseline TIFF). TIFF is preferred as compared to PNG or JPEG2000, due to its higher capacity for data storage. Therefore the image quality saved is much higher. This does however mean much larger file sizes, which could be an issue for students who don’t have as much data storage.
ARCHIVAL FILE FORMAT OVERVIEW
This section suggests the most archivable formats of common files that students and professionals in the Architectural field may use. All important files should have a copy saved in an archivable format, to ensure its preservation for the future.
PNG Portable Network Graphics are an image format that supports lossless data compression. They should be saved uncompressed for better achievability.
JPEG 2000 jPEG2000 is an image compression standard, with a high image quality, although not as high as TIFF. As it is a form of lossless compression the original data can be reconstructed from the compressed data with no image quality loss. Therefore the file size is lower, so may be more useful for students.
DNG
Digital-Negative-Format (*.dng) can be used to keep raw data of digital photos in addition to a second copy in TIFF format. This is also a lossless file type, so will produce a smaller file size than the original format, at a higher quality than the compressed JPEG. There is no risk of losing valuable data or quality with DNG files as they are not compressed.
SVG
Scalable Vector Graphics are a vector format for defining 2-dimensional graphics. For this format to be archivable it must be saved without JavaScript binding. This is an important file format for architecture students, as it can be an archivable format for plans, details and drawings created on CAD software like AutoCAD, Illustrator and Rhino.
DWG
This binary file format is used to save two- and threedimensional data. It is the native format for several CAD packages, therefore many CAD software allows you to convert other CAD formats to this archivable format. As it is a universal format it also can be used across a range of design software
DXF
This is a Textbased CAD data file format. Compared to binary DWG, the file sizes are much larger.
X3D
This format supports more complex rendering and scene details.
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format is an audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on personal computers. This file format is preferred over MP3, as it generally has higher quality unless it has been compressed.
FFV1
The preferred version of file for archiving, over MP4, Quicktime Movie, and MPEG-2. This is because it is a lossless intra-frame video coding format. FFV1 is particularly popular for its performance regarding speed and size, compared to other lossless preservation codecs.
CSV Comma-separated values are the preferred data-saving method for tables and spreadsheets. It is a text file format that uses commas to separate values, and newlines to separate records. A CSV file stores tabular data in plain text, where each line of the file typically represents one data record
References
(File formats for archiving - Research Data Management and Digital Curation - Confluence 2024) (Creating PDF Files: How to Convert Microsoft Word, OneNote or PowerPoint Files to PDF/A - Research Data Management and Digital Curation - Confluence 2024) (Wikipedia 2024)
Ju
APRIL
PERSONAL NOTES
These notes somehow made their way into my university be archived nethertheless
First semester of University notes.
JULY
MARCH
Lots of notes planning the following would enjoy taking
MAY
Many of these notes are more explorative more creative phase in many of
Much fewer notes taken as the semester wraps up for the summer.
SUMMER SEMESTER JOURNAL NOTES
university journal, they shall
following academic semester and what papers I
explorative and contain sketches, signalling a of my papers.
JAJUNE
Definitly my most prolific month of acedemic jounalling.
ARCHIVING PHYSICAL MATARIAL
Physical mediums often use more traditional archiving techniques. I find that keeping all my notes in one place such as a journal is a way to maintain large amounts of information. I must be meticulous in dating and labelling these pages so I can easily refer to notes in the future. Everything must be treated with the same respect and system, as a selection of what is important happens much later. I take down all my notes across different topics in the same book, as it allows me to passively review my content and draw connections between subjects. There are multiple benefits and downsides to archiving physical material. By nature, the physical is delicate and susceptible to many environmental conditions that can degrade its quality over time. Digital techniques such as photogrammetry, photography and scanning can be used to produce copies of these materials, converting them into organisable data that can be accessed by anyone. Overall Keeping track of and archiving physical material is less secure and requires digital revision to create backups but I prefer it for its simplicity.
The following images are a timeline of a selection of my notes from my summer semester at TUM. I was easily transfer these pictures into data by taking photos of each page and then arranging them by date again. I found that the arrangement of material allowed me a new perspective on what I had produced. To select what would make it into my archive, I had to review the material and decide what parts were still important to me. Pages that didn’t offer much insight into my thought process or were repetitive were not selected.
2.
ARCHIVING DIGITAL MATARIAL
Digital media poses more unpredictable challenges for students. For students, archiving is often viewed as an afterthought, an optional final step for a project. This often becomes difficult and labour-intensive due to a lack of education in correct archival practices. To be successful at archiving, it must a process considered from the project’s inception until its conclusion. This problem begins due to a lack of education about the correct practices of file saving and formatting. When not following a strict file structure and naming system, chaos ensues. Despite computers creating an easy way to sort data into folder systems, with the volume of file types and software used for a single architectural project, files quickly can spiral out of control. Archiving becomes especially difficult and slow after a project is created without structure, and without careful archival, not all file types will be accessible past their creation. While some file types such as PDFs and DOX are simple to convert into their archivable formats PDF/A and TXT respectively, file types created by CAD software, often rely on the original software environments to reopen files. This means that as software updates to new editions, files created by now redundant versions become increasingly difficult to access. Until there is a solution to this problem, a way to remedy this problem is to follow set archiving protocols. Many universities like ETH Zurich and TU Darmstadt publish set digital archiving protocols (File formats for archiving - Research Data Management and Digital Curation - Confluence 2024) (TUdata – TU Darmstadt 2024). These set standards allow students to independently ensure the accessibility of their data in the future. Ensuring students know how to correctly archive their work, is a key step towards producing a functioning and accessible student archive. Therefore it should be a part of every architecture student’s education to some level. Pushing students towards submitting their work in archives, could create an educational opportunity, that teaches students the importance of considering achievability, not just as an afterthought but from the beginning of a project.
\Users
\natalie
\OneDrive - Victoria University of Wellington - STUDENT
\MAT2024
\Emergency _Measures
1_Research \02_Assets
File system organisation is crucial, for simple access in the future. However, as shown the scale of architectural projects means this structure can be vast and quickly uncontrollable. This example of a file structure used for one of my Projects this summer semester shows the huge quantity of work produced.
This folder is a simple collection of handouts and information past on from the professorship. To archive these documents simply convert them into PDF/A and TXT versions.
FN: Site_Map_ V1
FN: Site_Map_ V1
FN: Te_ Papa_1_2500
FN: Te_ Papa_1_2500
FN: Te_Papa_ Enlarged_Map
FN: Te_Papa_ Enlarged_Map
FN: Te_ Papa_1_2500 File Name: File Version:
FN: Background Text
FN: AIX Map
To archive AIX and PSD files, convert them into PDF/A versions. Ensure for maps that layers are remembered when converting files.
PROJECT
FOUR
\Instagram Content
FN: Layout Exampler
FN: A_Layout Exampler
To archive IND files, convert them into PDF/A versions. Label the New Version with _A to differentiate it from the original.
All final versions of documentation, that are significant will be archived in this folder in their archivable formats.
SELECTION OF MATARIAL
An additional process in archiving is selection. Not all material needs to be preserved, nor is it sustainable to attempt to archive everything. As students progress through a project, they constantly make decisions about what paths they should pursue in their design. Being able to revisit a work and identify which of these turns are critical to either the result of a project or have their significance in some other way.
A huge question to ask when producing an archive of student work, is what and how much should be preserved of each project? Should there be set requirements for what is submitted to an archive, or should each student be allowed to act as the archivist, determining what of their work they believe is significant? Independent authority would allow students to learn revisit and contemplate their decisions and designs, while a set of standards could create an archive that is more evenly useful.
In this page’s example, I show a series of forty-one photographs, from one shoot of an old design project. These images were a process stage, not the final output of the project. When reviewing the project, I determined a few of the images became key turn points that inspired the future of the project. This system of review is essential when selecting work for a student archive.
LEARNINGS FROM METHODOLOGY
CREATION AND MAINTENANCE OF STUDENT ARCHIVES
The archival practice of preserving students’ work, seems to have faded in the digital age. This work deserves to be protected and archived. Three aspects of the archive also need to be maintained for it to be functional; Acquisition, Display and Access. Without proper maintenance for these roles, a student archive could become ineffective and unusable.
Student Archives differentiate themselves from regular archives as most of the material accepted into the archive is non-published work. This creates a layer of vulnerability and responsibility when protecting and preserving this kind of data.
After an archive creation, it continues to grow and evolve. This constant evolution of the archive means that strict maintenance practices must constantly attempt to match the demand of its growth. Within this complex dynamic, a balance between security and accessibility must also be found. In traditional archives, acquisition policies, access protocols and display practices are used to create order between these dynamics.
A student archive must function in the same way. A clear set template for what work is collected and how would be essential to this process. This would be complicated by the large diversity of project types within a university. To ensure equal and fair representation of projects further study on how to look at projects and find common paths for displaying the design process, would also be essential. The same question applies to displaying work but also expands as we question what is the best way to display a physical work digitally, and how an archive of such visual variety still functions in an ordered and accessible way. The following studies on established and successful student archives will aim to give answers to these questions.
UTILIZATION OF STUDENT ARCHIVES
For a Student Archive to be successfully utilised, it must acquire a broad range of content, display this content in a way that is captivating to its users, and allow simple and specifiable access to all of its materials. If these are done correctly, a student archive could be utilised at a variety of scales.
Small Scale – Individual Use
Students’ archives could act as an access point to safeguard and preserve in a public-facing way, students own individual materials. It could also provide an educational opportunity to teach students how to safely archive their work
Medium Scale – Collective Use
Student Archives could be a way of allowing Individual knowledge to transform into evolvable collective knowledge. Often serving as one of the only access points to many of its publications, Student Archives hold a huge responsibility for making this data easily accessible to other students and the public. How these archives are utilised must be allowed to be broad, facilitated by simple accessibility, easily allowing users to find the content they need. Filters are often used to narrow searches of large databases, producing more accurate and useable results. Each University may have unique qualities that differentiate it from others. These differences can become filters that allow for more unique results.
Large Scale- Cultural Change
Assignments and projects in university are traditionally productive to only the individual’s education. Without sharing the knowledge learnt from each project, this knowledge has no capability of evolving. This not only limits the individual but the cultural and social dynamics of the class.
CULTURAL AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS
The cultural and social dynamics within student archives are complex and multifaceted. These archives reflect the values and priorities of the institution, as well as the creative and intellectual journeys of individual students.
There are many criticisms against the field of Architecture, many of them centre around unhealthy cultural and social dynamics. These dynamics are born within our education and follow on into professional careers. One issue often discussed is the lack of transparency in Architectural Education. While this issue has many roots, the culture of elusive criteria for grading and advancement can set a precedent for the lack of transparency seen to carry on into professional practice. This secrecy breeds a competitive work environment that can foster a culture of secrecy within studios. Why students no longer feel comfortable sharing work with their peers, could have multiple answers. My inclination is that students feel their work may be copied and credit may be given to other students for their ideas.
Despite design being a cyclic system of references impacting creation, fear still exists around learning from each other in an educational and professional environment. Perhaps more cultural changes to come will make projects more collaborative, matching the current dynamics seen in the workplace. Archives could be used as a tool to combat a lack of transparency. Classes that force a level of transparency, either by compulsory participation in public crits, can feel less secretive and more collaborative. A student archive could affect the culture of studios similarly, as students may feel less pressure to align their designs to set standards, rather gaining a wider perspective on what creative approaches students in past years have taken to similar projects.
Precedent Studies
The following pages (24,25,67,27,28 and 29) study three different architectural student archives, comparing them against the concepts and dynamics of this page.
I hope to understand what makes a student archive successful or not, and the different approaches taken towards the acquisition, display and access of students’ work.
PRESCEDENT ONE
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
The ‘Atlas of Dipositives’ is a very successful student architecture archive from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. I will analyse its success in the fields of acquisition, display and access. ways.
ACQUISITION
The materials for this archive appear to be primarily self-submitted works by students themselves, rather than a compulsory task for all students. Despite this, it holds a wide and varied portfolio of students’ work. I would infer that the work belongs to mainly high-achieving projects as the standard of work seems very high.
DISPLAY
The graphics of this student archive are eye-catching and allow users to understand what the project is from one main thumbnail image. The image itself acts as an attractive force in compelling users to click on different projects. The downside of this is that the user doesn’t know the name of the project or who created it until they hover over it with their mouse.
ACCESS
The digital archive is very easy to access, with a variety of filters allowing users to navigate easily. An additional filter I found interesting was the scale filter. This allows scaling of the projects from XS to XL. This shows how creative and complex a student archive could be.
Once a project has been selected, a description of the project is shown, following images of the project. The amount of data held is minimal, with no downloadable files.
In Summary, this archive functions more as a beautiful showcase of a selection of this university’s works. It could be more inclusive of a broader range of achievement levels as well as function as a repository for files in addition to images.
TITLE BLOCK
- Title
- Department
- About link
- Contact link
- Submissions link
FILTERS
years -2015
- courses
- units
- scales DISPLAY
1x1 box each displaying an title image from one students project, displayed in rows of 3.
VARIETY OF DISPLAY
Collage Render
Line Drawing
Site Plan
Render
Title Axometric
PRESCEDENT TWO
TU Delft
TU Delft
Delft’s Online Museum showcases the final year work of its students. The Archive strives to show the learning process of these projects as well as their artistic and technical capabilities
ACQUISITION
The work shown in this archive acts as a representation of all final-year work, therefore students had to submit their final work to the archive. There is no option for submission for non-final year students.
DISPLAY
The primary webpage of this digital archive shows numerous indistinguishable boxes in similar shades. Each box contains the year and name of the student. This is misleading all names lead to the same pdf document. This document is a summary of the whole class’s work, rather than focusing on the individual.
ACCESS
This archive is very difficult to access, as it has limited filtering options and ways to differentiate material. The only filter is by year, and the individual work of each student can not be selected.
In Summary, this archive does not display its information well for general use and access. It would be difficult to find material or trace it back to a specific student. It could be improved by allowing students to contribute work under their name, so they retain ownership over their work.
TITLE BLOCK
- title - department FILTERS - years
DISPLAY
1x1 colourful box, with identifying year and student name.
VARIETY OF DISPLAY
different colour groups for each year
no images of students work displayed
Fakulta Architektury Cvut v Praze
This archive contains the final diploma projects for Masters students at FACVP. This archive is extensive and contains a large variety of material and different achievement levels.
ACQUISITION
The work shown in this archive is automatically uploaded upon the completion of each student’s final diploma. Therefore there is a great variety of topics and levels of achievement. Unique to this archive, is the acquisition of grades and final submission documents that are downloadable for all users of the archive.
DISPLAY
Each project is displayed clearly with one thumbnail image, the year, title and student stated under each image. This is the most effective display method of the three as it allows a user to quickly scan through the images and text while understanding what each contains
ACCESS
There is simple and direct access to this archive, through its filtering system which allows users to filter by year, semester, student and project name. More niche filters would be interesting to see in a future edition.
In Summary
This is the most accessible and diverse archive of the three. It has a great variety of information which is displayed in a way that users can easily navigate. This is the only archive where the full submission of the student’s diploma is used, allowing the user to look deeper into each topic. The only point I would want to look more into is the release of grades and feedback. I would be interested in how students at this University felt about such a high level of transparency.
TITLE BLOCK - Title - Department
FILTERS years -2015 - courses - units - scales
DISPLAY
1 box each displaying an title image from one students project, displayed in rows of 3.
Title Includes - year - semester - student - project name
VARIETY OF DISPLAY
majourity of projects are advertised with a render.
CONCLUSIONS
Summary of Key Findings
In summary, this essay highlights the significant role student archives are starting to play in architecture education. These archives not only document academic and creative processes but also reflect the cultural and social dynamics within architecture schools, allowing students to give value to their work outside of the institution.
From examining existing student archives, I was able to see that there are many different ways to produce a student archive, but the successful ones can create a digital platform that can efficiently acquire display and access information.
Implications for Architecture Education
My research suggests there could be several positive implications for enhancing archival practices, including recommendations for institutional support and integration of archival practices into the curriculum.
Suggestions for Future Research
Future research explores deeper insights into the complex interplay between documentation, learning, and professional development.
REFERENCES
Creating PDF Files: How to Convert Microsoft Word, OneNote or PowerPoint Files to PDF/A - Research Data Management and Digital Curation - Confluence (2024). Available online at https://unlimited.ethz.ch/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=194127870, updated on 8/9/2024, checked on 8/9/2024.
File formats for archiving - Research Data Management and Digital Curation - Confluence (2024). Available online at https://unlimited. ethz.ch/display/DD/File+formats+for+archiving, updated on 8/6/2024, checked on 8/6/2024.
Into the archive! We dive into the act of creative preservation today (2024). Available online at https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/ into-the-archive-thematic-creative-industry-050723, updated on 8/5/2024, checked on 8/5/2024.
The Beaux-Arts Tradition (2024). Available online at https://drawingmatter.org/the-beaux-artstradition/, updated on 8/4/2024, checked on 8/4/2024.
TUdata – TU Darmstadt (2024): File formats. Available online at https://www.tu-darmstadt. de/tudata/datenmanagement/fdm_im_ forschungsprozess/dateiformate/dateiformate. en.jsp, updated on 8/6/2024, checked on 8/6/2024.
