Making tectonics

The School of Architecture, Building, and Civil Engineering (ABCE) at Loughborough University was established in 2017, procuring an international, creative, and innovative environment developed with the collaboration of members of staff and students. The content presented in this paper exemplifies teaching innovation in response to four factors. Firstly, a fourfold increase in the student cohort, from fifty students in 2017 to two-hundred students in 2021. Secondly, to ensure the content of this module transitions to be interdisciplinary. Thirdly, the transition of the mode of delivery from online to in-person. And fourthly, the reduced staff allocated to support this module, compared with previous years. Tectonics is a first-year undergraduate module, conceived originally for Architecture students. Its main objective was to encourage the students’ critical thinking, and the aim was to make this possible by promoting research and experimentation. This module was later included in the first-year curricula of Construction Engineering Management (CEM), and Commercial Management and Quantity Surveying (CMQS). While all the courses of ABCE are involved in the multi-disciplinary project in the context of the Professional Practice week (PP), during weeks two and fifteen of Semester One; Tectonics is the only interdisciplinary module for those courses that run during the first academic year. The Module consists of two coursework and one end-of-the-year exam. Coursework One was prepared in a way that the students would develop practical skills that would prepare them for interdisciplinary dialogues in the professional world. It was planned to encourage the student’s interaction and coproduction of knowledge. Coursework Two was intended as an introduction to research thinking, in which the students are encouraged to use deductive logic to verify knowledge acquired during lectures.