Abstract
This study examines how design projects function as actors within studio-based pedagogy, drawing on Actor-Network Theory. Data were collected over a nine-month fieldwork at a higher education institution, covering courses in architecture, industrial design, and ceramics design. The study was conducted as a Research-Practice Partnership, uniting education researchers and design practitioners to shift the focus away from practitioners' specialized knowledge and experiences by positioning them alongside critical perspectives from K-12 educational research. Our findings demonstrate how students and instructors view projects as active actors in the design process across three main dimensions: 1) Through language: instructors and students personify projects, assigning needs that create challenges to address; 2) Through space: gestures, sketching, and presentations manifest the project's presence; 3) Through shifting alliances among the student, instructor, and the project. These insights highlight how projects, alongside instructors and students, become integral actors in the generation of design knowledge.
Keywords
studio pedagogy; actor-network theory; project-based learning, more than human, design education
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.442
Citation
Pelman, B., and Bouton, E. (2026) Projects as Actors in Design Education, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.442
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Projects as Actors in Design Education
This study examines how design projects function as actors within studio-based pedagogy, drawing on Actor-Network Theory. Data were collected over a nine-month fieldwork at a higher education institution, covering courses in architecture, industrial design, and ceramics design. The study was conducted as a Research-Practice Partnership, uniting education researchers and design practitioners to shift the focus away from practitioners' specialized knowledge and experiences by positioning them alongside critical perspectives from K-12 educational research. Our findings demonstrate how students and instructors view projects as active actors in the design process across three main dimensions: 1) Through language: instructors and students personify projects, assigning needs that create challenges to address; 2) Through space: gestures, sketching, and presentations manifest the project's presence; 3) Through shifting alliances among the student, instructor, and the project. These insights highlight how projects, alongside instructors and students, become integral actors in the generation of design knowledge.