OUR BELIEFS
We live in a time when bodies of knowledge are no longer centralized in educational institutions, and yet there are still many who lack access to quality education. The world is more connected physically and mentally through globalization, and yet there are still many conflicts. The speed of development is accelerating, and yet it is doing so at the expense of depleting natural resources and environmental devastation. The ability of higher education to contribute to the betterment of this world is increasingly open to question.
In order to find new solutions through collaboration, lab-based education was established within the School of Architecture and Design at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. We believe that a vessel’s direction is more important than its weight capacity. Lab-based education takes this spirit of exploration into a new realm. Going beyond conventional areas of science and technology, we are taking our vessel into the waters of art, design, humanities, and beyond. In so doing, we embrace and promote concepts of resilience, sustainability, and circularity.
Taken together, these lab-based mechanisms form a collaboration platform that connects the school, university, communities and industries, both locally as well as internationally. This is how we propose to reimagine a higher education that can survive and thrive in our complex and challenging future.
WHAT IS LAB BASED LEARNING?
We established SoA+D Lab-Based Learning to promote and support collaboration between professors, students, and alumni, to connect our shared ideas and passions, and to create meaningful social and environmental impact. With coaching support from a myriad of subject experts, our students and collaborators learn by working directly on real world projects. Our projects take students and collaborators outside the routine of the classroom, and into real contexts, spaces, and lives in order to create value for industries, communities, and our society.
