The Design Research Internship Project (DRIP) is a curricular initiative that is designed to provide undergraduate students with a critical educational experience outside the classroom/studio while continuing to call on their developed skills and knowledge to undertake design research projects now enriched by realities of professional practice. It exposes our Architectural Studies students to design as a form of applied research, and in turn exposes the rich community of professional practitioners to our uniquely skilled University of Toronto students.
The pedagogical positioning of our BAAS program rooted in the liberal arts milieu is the only one of its kind across Canada. Its non-professional nature affords our students’ deep indulgence in the design disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design without the burden of pre-professional requirements. At the same time, the opportunity for experiential learning seems critical for engaging these same students in how these disciplines are intrinsic to aspects of professional practice, and in the space where critical design research can shape and influence the design process for real projects.
At the core of DRIP is the presupposition that multifaceted research is intrinsic to design practice. Each internship relies on a practitioner-defined project born from exigencies of past, present, and or future professional projects. DRIP students are placed with host firms for the duration of the six-week internship while also satisfying an important, parallel academic component. All internship work is directed and supervised by the host firm, while each student’s final research record, in the form of a Final DRIP Document, is critically guided by the seminar component that helps position for students their internship work in the larger disciplinary context. In so doing, DRIP tests the virtues of experiential learning, and its long history in the design disciplines, to go beyond ‘practical experience’ by engaging the critical, educational space that bridges academic knowledge with professional practice.
Outcomes
The LEAF Impact Grant supported the definition, establishment, and growth of DRIP and its processes as an experiential learning model rooted in the Daniels Faculty, Architectural Studies program and unique across Canada, and likely North America. Primary outcomes include:
• Establishment of DRIP as a far-reaching and enduring curricular initiative that engages a number of faculty members and partnering practitioners that together advance the productive critical work possible only with this new format. This includes designing its processes, protocols, best practices, and organizational structure.
• Creation of a DRIP Manual, a comprehensive curricular guide that documents the program’s pedagogical positioning, its processes, protocols, and resources required to deliver and develop the Design Research Internship Program as an impactful undergraduate learning experience.
• Development of tools for communicating the uniqueness of DRIP and its potential to partnering practitioners and to the larger disciplinary community while demonstrating its capacity for high quality work generated by our students via this new experiential learning model. These include a new DRIP website and Instagram platform. Both live under the umbrella of the Daniels Faculty website and Instagram account and benefit from its established community and broad reach.
• Testing DRIP’s strategic plan with expanded engagement by Daniels faculty members. Although the establishment and engagement of the DRIP Academic Committee was always planned, the significant increase in application numbers each year required an increase in membership. This critical number of voices became instrumental in the effective self-scrutiny and progressive refinement of the academic aspects and virtues of DRIP, as well as best practices for sustaining growth, refinement, and inclusivity.