Advisor: Prof. Nabil Abu-Dayyeh
Co-advisor: Prof. Mohammad al-Asad

Abstract:
For the past decade, computer and information technologies have been challenging the architectural education, particularly design education. There have been different views regarding the implementation of these new technologies in the schools of architecture. Some academicians have rejected these technologies. Others have applied them outside the design studio. A third group has implemented these technologies inside the design studio, and there was a group who has adopted these technologies and has considered them the sole techniques for performing the design process.
In order for us to take a definite stance from the new technologies, determine their necessity for the learning of the design process, and to make the most of them, we need to understand the process and the aims of design in depth. For this to be accomplished, it is necessary to provide an analytical study of the evolution of the methods of learning the architectural design process and the impact of the computer and of the information technologies on its development.
This study is accomplished through a historic review of the old methods of design learning followed by an analytical study of these methods. The research also involves a theoretical and analytical study of the different stages of the current conventional method of learning the design process and their cognitive mechanisms. Also it includes an analytical study of the role that computer and information technologies play in the different stages of the design process. The study is supported with some advanced case studies from schools of architecture around the world.
The study proved that the computer and the information technologies provide a strong design medium that supports the learning of the design process in the schools of architecture. These new technologies give different kinds of design representations, support the complexity of the design process, and enhance collaboration between the different parties involved in the design process. And this would extend the design studio beyond its boundaries.
Though they have a high potentiality for enhancing the design process, computers and information technologies do not substitute for the conventional design media ­sketching and study models ­ which continue to prove their high potentialities in the design process. The study concluded that the integration of both conventional and technological techniques is the best solution for applying the new technologies in the design studio. Based on these findings, the study proposes the implementation of the computers and information technologies in the schools of architecture in Jordan. It also suggests the study of the human, technical and financial requirements for the implementation of these technologies for further research.