Sherwin Tjia

David Covo

School of Architecture

Ida & Samuel Fromson Award for Outstanding Teaching (Faculty of Engineering)

The best advice has always come from my students. It arrives in many forms, verbal and non-verbal, sometimes on the spot in class, and sometimes years later in the most unlikely places. I discovered this eminently renewable resource the first time I walked into a classroom at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School of Art and Design in January 1974, and was most recently reminded of its value only two nights ago in my office.

I've always enjoyed studio teaching. The design studio is a two-day per week lab-style course that explores the theory and practice of architectural design; it develops both knowledge and skills and relies on every imaginable pedagogical model. A typical day may start with a conventional one or two-hour lecture to the entire class, followed by short seminars in the studio with small groups of students, and end with an afternoon and evening of one-on-one working sessions with individuals at their desks. The studio makes challenging but equal demands on both teachers and students, and as an environment for teaching and learning, it is unique.