HOW TO TEACH ‘AESTHETICS’ TO FIRST YEAR ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS: A FIVE YEAR (2008-2012) BASIC-AESTHETICS COURSE’S TEACHING-EXPERIENCES IN GADJAH MADA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA INDONESIA Kurnia Widiastuti Academic Affairs, Department of Architecture and Planning, Gadjah Mada University; Center for Innovation in Higher Education (CIHE/P3) Gadjah Mada University (INDONESIA) Abstract First year of bachelor architecture curriculum is the most fundamental and critical education phase, especially in Indonesia, where primary and secondary educations contribute inadequate support for substantial art and drawing foundation. Before the implementation of new curriculum in 2007-2008, we found problems in each year’s architecture (core-curriculum) studio mainly caused by insufficient basic skills, specifically in form-making ability (basic aesthetics). This problem worsens also by the 1:80 to 1:100 teacher-student ratios in our classes, limited credits (two class hours per week) and lacking of coordination between related courses, which are common problem in Indonesian university. This paper will present experiences and lesson learnt of Basic Aesthetics course in Bachelor Architecture Program of Gadjah Mada University in the last five years (2008-2012), focused on the innovations of learning methods and process as well as assessment and evaluation. Some of the innovations were supported by university’s teaching grants (i.e. Student-Centered Learning (SCL) Teaching Grant, Student-Teacher Aesthetic Role (STAR), and Research-Based Learning(RBL)), and have been maintaining great results inside and outside the classroom. In general, we found at least four main points of successful Basic Aesthetics teaching, that are (1) understanding student’s life style, (2) creating gradual ‘challenges’, (3) establishing clear assessment method, and (4) encouraging student and/or teacher leadership. Keywords: basic aesthetics, architecture, teaching experience. 1 INTRODUCTION This paper aims to describe experiences in implementing learning innovations of Basic Aesthetics (BA) course in Department of Architecture and Planning (JUTAP) Faculty of Engineering (FT) Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) during period of 2008 to 2012. The 2007 experience is added to provide background on innovation early fundamental progress. This two-credit course was placed simultaneously with core curriculum course, Architecture Design Studio (SDA) 1 and supported next SDA 2 in the second semester. Both SDAs emphasizes ‘aesthetics’, with addition of ‘function’ emphasize to SDA 2. Architecture Bachelor Program of UGM was established in 1962, pioneered by alumni of Department of Architecture Institute Technology Bandung (ITB, founded in 1950) which made UGM the second oldest architecture department in Indonesia. By this year of 2013, architectural education in Indonesia will celebrate its 63 th birthday. Almost all bachelor architecture programs have similar character in terms of ‘studio’ as core curriculum course. Aesthetics or similar courses (visual design, architectural form and space, art, etc) was foundation course and always in the first year, unless ITB, which put them in the second year due to institute policy of preparatory program in the first year. This shows how important the phase of first year in establishing foundation skills in architecture. Before implementation of innovations written in this paper, teacher complaints and frustration of student’s form-making ability in all studio level were common. The cause can be various design and technical factors of curriculum implementation, but after the period of 2007, all complaints and frustration were significantly disappeared, replaced by increase and praise of design awards won by the students. In the beginning, obstacles and rejections occurred, but seeing positive impact on students and studio atmosphere, all turned into supports. The changes above were results of UGM commitment to transform learning paradigm from Teacher- centered Learning (TCL) to Student-centered Learning (SCL). Many grants, trainings, and disseminations implemented to motivate teachers and students. Grants mentioned in this paper were Proceedings of ICERI2013 Conference 18th-20th November 2013, Seville, Spain ISBN: 978-84-616-3847-5 7193