Resilient Design Pedagogies – An Analysis of Tertiary Design Education in the Context of Global Sustainable Development Goals Discourse

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Flavia Mameli
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 544447906

This research project aims to systematically analyse how the notion of resilience, and more specifically, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-related discourses are discussed in the academic world of tertiary architecture and design education. Constructed as a qualitative mixed-methods analysis, the project will examine how university-level design courses teach new methods and strategies to meet the future challenges of the Anthropocene. How are current design and architecture debates about SDGs linked to resilient design as a strategy taught in tertiary design education? What necessary competencies do universities associate with the resilient design practices of future designers and architects? How do teachers understand their role and their impact? And what are the global relations of tertiary design education in this context? The project defines resilient design as the intentional and adaptive process of creating objects, constructions, systems, or environments that demonstrate the capacity to endure and thrive in the face of various socio-cultural, environmental, and technological challenges deriving from anthropogenic actions. The planned research design consists of three interrelated components. First, the project asks through the lens of a discourse analytical approach, how resilient design, as implicitly demanded by the SDGs, and discussed in architecture and design discourses, is reflected and conveyed didactically by design educators at undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels. Secondly, by conducting narrative interviews, the project explores how tertiary design educators define their role in the training of future resilient designers. Thirdly, the project will visualize the global network of resilient design education by mapping the specific study programs, professorships, and chairs that are relevant to SDGs- and resilient design-related knowledge transfer. The combination of these three qualitative methodological approaches will provide an in-depth analysis of the status quo of resilient design education. Up to now, the topic of resilient design pedagogies remains relatively under-researched and not yet adequately networked. Furthermore, an ethnographic and discourse-analytical investigation, mapping the higher education landscape in this context has yet to be conducted. The project looks not only at programs from Europe or, more generally, the Global North, but, most importantly, aims to assess the landscape of resilient design pedagogies from a global and inclusive perspective. The methodological interplay between discourse analysis, ethnographic investigation, and critical mapping will be analyzed and published in an open-access monograph and as a digital map (website) to support networking between resilient design educators and institutions internationally and to create new synergies that push forward pedagogic activism.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: Austria
• Host: Professorin Dr. Alison J. Clarke