Abstract
Within the current climate and biodiversity emergency, architectural education needs to provide graduates with the relevant skills needed in order to shape the future of our built environment. These skills are not only creative or technical, there is a social component to architecture for which social sciences could support architectural education. Lefebvre’s 1 thinking shifted the notion of space adding a social dimension to it, however, architects are not typically prepared to deal with the social aspects of design and most times this results in object-based proposals rather than people centred solutions. This qualitative research is based on the case study of Unit A (2022-23), an undergraduate design studio at Oxford Brookes School of Architecture. The Unit’s approach is to aim for radical change through a series of incremental steps. The teaching method is through Live Projects and this year students collaborated with a community organization based in Plymouth and the brief called for radical interventions to address the impact of climate change in the locality and community. The concept of Social Innovation was introduced in the Unit as new ideas that meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations enhancing society’s capacity to act 2 . Social innovation starts with innovative and creative ideas in a similar way to architectural design. This study aims to understand the relationship between Live Projects and Social Innovation in order to leverage the creative potential of students’ ideas into bringing value and benefiting the communities they collaborate with.
Presenters
Ruth CuencaSenior Lecturer, School of Architecture. Faculty of Technology and Built Environment , Oxford Brookes University, London, City of, United Kingdom
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus: Agency in an Era of Displacement and Social Change
KEYWORDS
Live projects, Social innovation, Architectural pedagogy, Climate change, Collaboration
