Fabrication & Structure: An Innovative Design Studio Model for Sustainable Construction Pedagogy

This paper details the pedagogical structure and research outputs of a Fabrication & Structure studio, a design studio for second- and third-year TU Dublin Bachelor of Architecture students. The studio brief argues that material utilisation directly impacts construction sustainability; it prioritises material characteristics rather than site as primary design drivers. The curriculum is research-led and intrinsically linked to HYBRID Lab’s Circular Modularity project, which addresses construction waste and material reuse in Ireland’s Architecture, Construction, and Engineering (ACE) sector. The paper is structured around two central research questions: To what degree does the studio reflect best practices in Design Research? How can student projects contribute to ongoing research on material reuse in the Irish ACE sector? Here, learning focuses on navigating shared responsibility and creating generalisable strategies that contribute to research on the future of construction. An emphasis on shared responsibility and sustainability (construction during climate crises) forms the studio’s ethical backbone and aligns with contemporary research in engineering ethics education. Teaching methods include physical prototyping, manual and digital fabrication, and weekly consultations with structural engineers to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration. A central pedagogical feature is ‘spread authorship’ (unusual in architectural pedagogy), supported by design exchanges that foster rational, evidence-based discussion. The technical research generated by student teams has produced diverse timber reuse strategies for material offcuts, resulting in innovative structural systems. Ultimately, this framework provides a generalisable model for transferring research-informed sustainability education into practice, bridging academic inquiry and the physical realities of circular construction.