Abstract
The transition from high-school to university is often a challenging and unsettling experience. In order to ease the transition to a new environment, the first steps of students at the Faculty of Architecture in Iași are closely guided by tutors. The first task of the Project Design course confronts the students with a new challenge: that of observing and interpreting the spaces they visit, aiming to develop the skills of direct analysis of the built environment. The paper aims to analyze the processes involved in the consolidation of the basic notions and principles of architecture in the case of first-year students, through guided observation, diagrammatic representation, and comparative analysis. The aim is to identify spatial categories relevant to understanding the principles of architectural composition. The spatial models and concepts identified within the city of Iași address fundamental compositional principles with broad applicability, regardless of the specific urban/architectural context in which they are explored.