Building Bridges: Architectural Pedagogies in the Geography Classroom

Project Lead: Desiree Valadares, Geography 

Project description

This project considers the effectiveness of architectural pedagogies in allied spatial disciplines such as geography. Building on existing studies and writings on radical architectural pedagogies (Beatriz Colomina), design activism (Greig Crysler) and decolonizing architecture (DAAR’s Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti), this study will investigate how studio-based pedagogical models such as the “site visit,” the “charrette,” the “pin-up,” and “design critique” might be better adapted to geographical education at the undergraduate level. Typically, these collaborative processes rely on a tight timeline and require participants to think creatively (convergent and divergent thinking) while also modelling or visually representing their ideas. My courses, GEOG 328: Constructing Canada and GEOG 210: Vancouver and its Region will be studied. 

Research questions

  1. How might we better foster creativity and imaginative thinking in geography classrooms through the adoption of architectural pedagogies?
  2. How do we measure the effectiveness of design pedagogies in architectural education?
  3. How do we understand non-design students experiences of learning in unconventional ways?
  4. How else might we foster visual literacy and competency in visual communication in geography classrooms?