A Comparative Study on (Interior) Architectural Education Pedagogical Approaches and Curriculum Models

Abstract

The pedagogies of schools that play a significant role in design education cannot be read independently of the political and cultural events of their time. The design schools examined in this study have not remained confined to their geographies but have developed other schools as well. A chronological analysis of the historical and periodical relationships of the countries where these schools were established reveals numerous common interactions. The primary aim of this study is to analyze the pedagogies of major design schools through a comparative analysis method and to identify their traces in contemporary design education to understand the contemporary architectural pedagogies better. In this context, the interior architecture departments at Hasselt University’s (UHasselt) Faculty of Architecture and Design and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University’s (MSGSU’s) Faculty of Architecture are compared based on the pedagogical approaches of these significant design schools. In this study, the methodologies of important design schools in different countries—namely École des Beaux-Arts, École Polytechnique, Bauhaus, and Vkhutemas—and their effects on contemporary interior architecture education at UHasselt and MSGSU were analyzed using Bereday’s four-step comparative education model. First, in the description phase, the curricula of all four schools were examined separately. In the interpretation phase, the pedagogical approaches and course structures embedded in these architectural curricula were analyzed. The juxtaposition and comparison phases revealed that constructivism constitutes the dominant pedagogical orientation in both universities, particularly within studio-based and project-oriented courses. However, UHasselt demonstrates a more technically and digitally integrated pedagogical structure influenced by Bauhaus, Vkhutemas, and École Polytechnique traditions, whereas MSGSU reflects a stronger experiential and Beaux-Arts-oriented approach. The findings further indicate that contemporary interior architecture education increasingly emphasizes collaborative, interdisciplinary, digitally mediated, and practice-oriented learning environments.