This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, University of Banja Luka , Banja Luka , Bosnia and Herzegovina
Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, University of Banja Luka , Banja Luka , Bosnia and Herzegovina
Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, University of Banja Luka , Banja Luka , Bosnia and Herzegovina
Contemporary architectural education increasingly faces the challenge of reconciling academic studio models with the complex realities of spatial practice, which demand collaboration, adaptability, and direct engagement with real-world actors. Conventional design studios, often centred on hypothetical briefs and representational outputs, struggle to address the social, material, ecological, and institutional conditions that shape the built environment. This paper examines xSTUDIO, an experimental teaching line developed within the APLE Lab Banja Luka, framing it as a Pop-Up Live Learning Environment that repositions the architectural design studio as an operative, constructivist, and stakeholder-driven pedagogical framework. Implemented through a sequence of studio iterations between 2022 and 2026, xSTUDIO integrates problem-based learning, collaborative design, material experimentation, and 1:1 realization within real spatial contexts. The methodology combines research, design, implementation, and reflection through direct engagement with students, academic staff, public institutions, cultural organizations, and private-sector stakeholders. The paper analyzes the gradual evolution of the xSTUDIO model—from experimental interior pedagogies and small-scale urban interventions to institutional interiors, landscape-scale environments, and living ecological systems. Rather than focusing on finalized architectural products, the emphasis is placed on process, collaboration, embodied spatial experience, and the negotiation of real constraints. The findings suggest that xSTUDIO enables the development of competencies often underrepresented in conventional studio teaching, including collective authorship, stakeholder communication, material awareness, and socially responsible spatial action. The paper argues that live learning environments such as xSTUDIO represent transferable pedagogical models capable of redefining architectural education through constructivist, experiential, and socially engaged approaches to studio pedagogy.
architectural education, studio pedagogy, live learning environments, experiential learning, socially responsive practice
The statements, opinions and data contained in the journal are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s). We stay neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
