The Web to Support Creative Design in Architecture

The use of the web in a didactic context appears to be extremely meaningful and effective. In Architecture, the web has huge potential: among others, it has the ability to gather an enormous amount of information, and the ability to create an active learning environment, one which affords the learner opportunities to engage and think. The paper reports on a Web Based Instruction (WBI) system developed at the Italian National Research Council -Institute for Educational and Training Technologies- to support design activities for students of the Italian Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Original features of the system allow students to study and design in an effective way. Specifically, a particular set of "virtual stationery items" has been implemented and integrated in the system to help students, enrolled on on-line courses, to mimic important traditional study activities, still gaining all the advantages of using the Web. These tools are integrated with communication tools in the same learning environment. A very important feature of the WBI system is that authorised users can enrich the information network in the system, by adding new pages and new links. In the paper we report on the structure of the system, with particular focus on the information domain. Some of the "working tools" which allow users to simulate traditional study activities and the hypertext extension mechanism are also described.