A Learning Architecture: Developing a co-design pedagogy in Mumbai with Muktangan School and Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The environmental and social uncertainties within which we live urgently need addressing. Today children need more than ever to be included in the production of the world in order that they learn practices of agency and their right to the city (Lefebvre, 1968): A contemporary pedagogy is needed. Place-based education (Gruenewald and Smith, 2008) in developing countries and informal settlements needs to adapt to pressing issues so that children can learn how to create change. Design has the potential to develop their ability to tackle sustainable development and social injustice. There is growing awareness of the links between environment, education, design, and citizenship globally and in India (Sharma, 2011). Supranational policies such as UNESCO's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for practices of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to be integrated into the curriculum. SDG 4 'Quality Education' stipulates education for all and lifelong learning (UNESCO, 2016), and in clause 4.7 Education for Sustainable Development is identified as a global necessity. The inclusion of children in design or city planning as a learning process has been intermittently explored throughout the last century (Tagore, 1901; Gandhi, 1934; Lynch, 1960; Freinet, 1969; Ward and Fyson, 1978; Bishop, Adams and Kean, 1992; Gandini, 1995). It has continued to be marginalised as a practice of city making and education; techniques have not integrated mainstream education. This fellowship builds on my PhD research entitled 'A Learning Architecture: Developing a Collective Design Pedagogy in Mumbai with Muktangan School Children and the Mariamma Nagar Community', that investigated how architecture (an activity and a setting) can be considered an educator. The thesis argued children's role as architects is pedagogical, involving them in the production of their current environment, facilitating political identity, and fostering ability to communicate ideas. Design allows children to develop empathy, think critically and learn how to learn. It also found that architects can learn from children through facilitation, proposing a Collective Design Pedagogy in which architects and children co-design interventions. As well as an academic, I am a practicing architect, specialising in school design and participation. This work highlights the need for an interdisciplinary investigation into the reciprocal benefits (for architects and children, professionals, academics and publics) of urban design and place-based learning. During this fellowship I will focus on publishing work based on my research, to help academics understand the links between design and education in informal settlements. I will progress a book discussing PhD research into design as a place-based learning tool. I will also publish two journal articles aimed at diverse academic audiences in order to contribute detailed knowledge of how a Collective Design Pedagogy can help democratise education and the city. These publications will argue for the need to change education using co-design learning methods. This fellowship research aims to develop a usable pedagogical toolkit, a Collective Design Pedagogy for schools, involving architecture students as facilitators. Existing doctoral workshop plans will be transformed into a resource for a place-based pedagogy, co-developed with teachers and architecture students in Mumbai. The toolkit aims to be used by schools in India and other low and medium income countries to help meet UNESCO SDG 4.7, Education for Sustainable Development. I will also develop a funding application for a Postdoctoral Fellowship/Early Career Research grant.Challenging the disconnect between practice and research in pedagogy and architecture, the research aims to influence communities, architects, educators and policymakers towards innovating education using design, to change curriculum to include design as a teacher and the city as a classroom.