This paper focus on the implicit and overlooked dimension of teaching architectural design, and It also aims at developing a more active and dynamic coaching strategy for architectural design education by investigating the conventional format of tutoring architectural design. Echoing John Dewey’s idea of “Experiential Education”, a series of studio experiments were conducted for studying the relationship between tutors and pupils which the teaching and learning architectural design bases upon, and for exploring the possibilities of transforming the passive top-down hierarchical teaching and learning structure into a non-hierarchical coaching format.

In the course of establishing a multi-format coaching strategy for teaching and learning architectural design, a concept of “Exploratory learning”, which has been implemented in the experiment by applying four different coaching formats (Semi-Independent Studio, Open Studio & Team Work, Semi-Open Group and Relay Group), is to be proposed and illustrated. The analysis and summary of the experiment will be presented and discussed.