Structural Intuition and Creative Play: An Architectural Perspective to Shell Pedagogies

The notions of structural intuition and creative play had been raised by particular structural artists (Billington, 1983 [1]). Professor Pier Luigi Nervi expressed the importance of Structural Intuition in his 1965 Elliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University (Nervi, 1965 [3]) whilst Professor Heinz Isler described and drew attention to the idea of creative play in his shell practice through a child-like and non-preconceived observations of nature. Illustrated by past experience of working with architecture students in hands-on design/ construction workshops, as well as from explorations in a design studio environment, this paper presents and shares learning and teaching practices by the author, with a specificity to architectural education, in hope of opening up discussions on the pedagogies of shell teaching with creative experimental research.