Experiential Learning and the Co-creation of Design Artifacts: A Hybrid Urban Design Studio for Planners

This article examines the experience of a hybrid design studio tailored for beginning students in urban planning. The course combined elements of architectural design studio and planning workshop to advance design literacy, spatial awareness, procedural knowledge, and phenomenological experience. Teams of students undertook staggered weekly sequences of reading, critique, and design assignments focused on physical models of study neighborhoods. Through content analysis of student work, documentary film footage, and postgraduation surveys, I examine the merits of the hybrid studio. The co-creation of a model, which was an iterative and dialogically tested design artifact, heightened experiential learning of urban design.