Rethinking Building Construction Education: A Phased and Guided Pedagogical Framework

Architectural education requires students to integrate design thinking with technical knowledge, yet building construction and building component design courses are often structured around instructor-centered knowledge transmission in which technical information precedes and remains partially detached from design exploration. Although integrated, experiential, and problem-based approaches have sought to bridge this divide, less attention has been given to when formal technical instruction enters the design learning process and how this timing may shape students’ engagement with technical-design problems. This study proposes a phased and guided pedagogical framework that treats the timing of formal technical instruction as a deliberate instructional design variable in building construction education. The framework is organized through three successive stages: initial problem exploration, structured technical guidance, and the revision of initial design decisions following technical instruction. The framework is conceptually articulated through a stair and vertical circulation module within an undergraduate Building Component Design course, where spatial, ergonomic, regulatory, structural, and representational considerations must be addressed simultaneously. Traditional lecture-based, discovery-based, and phased and guided configurations are used as contrasting pedagogical structures to clarify differences in the sequencing of technical knowledge rather than to establish comparative performance outcomes. The proposed framework does not claim pedagogical superiority and has not yet been empirically validated. Instead, it provides a conceptual and methodological basis for future investigation of technical reasoning, design decision-making, reflective revision, and knowledge transfer. Its underlying sequence is intended to be adaptable across different building components and stages of architectural education, while also accommodating contemporary access to technical information through digital resources and generative AI.