From Theme to Representation: A Critical Studio Experience

Students have difficulty in critical thinking, designing and interpreting a particular idea by filtering in design process and transforming them into design idea. Trying to overcome this situation in the project process by creating different approaches and design problems is the main purpose of this study. Throughout the “Creating Space from Movie: Representation of A Selected Film in a Restaurant Interior Design” was examined as a design problem. In this content, in third year design studio of Interior Design department at Istanbul Arel University, students were asked to design a restaurant interior based on a movie. The fact that the subject will not be handled on the concept of thematic space, constitutes the main starting point of the design problem. It was observed that students interpreted the projects that they prepared differently. Making different interpretations during the design process can be considered as a positive output. In addition, it was found that the majority of the students had difficulty in creating the conceptual substructure of the project and determination the right keywords through the selected film. The interdisciplinary project process has made a positive contribution to the students, in terms of critical and versatile thinking, and the ability to develop alternative solutions for the design problem. It is needed to be given more time to process of creating the conceptual infrastructure when preparing the project schedule. Also, this studio experience enabled students to increase their intellectual knowledge about a different art discipline.