Automated system test schedule

Abstract

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Since 2016, the work of Crossing Cultures has taken students out of the Design Studio and focused on regenerating marginal areas in South Italy through regular architecture-informed workshops involving students in hands-on making activities with locals and refugees, contributing to “teaching as research”. The project’s teaching and research manifests itself in design visions for Belmonte’s regeneration as a new place of civic living, learning and working, as well as in hands-on constructions while actually living in the village setting. Through these architecture workshops we have observed how students and people from the community as well as participating refugees navigate cultural difference beyond the subject of architecture. Here we aim to understand the experience and benefits of the workshops for the participants and. In 2019 we conducted a qualitative research study interviewing 25 participants (students, locals and refugees) of our summer workshop. The interviews were transcripts and we used content analysis to extract themes around experiences and benefits of the workshop. The results showed that students learnt from the hands-on experience of working on a building site, but also described skills and value of working with a diverse group to broaden their horizon. The locals described the positive commercial aspects, but also that the workshops facilitate change and openness. Finally, refugees reported that in addition to learning skills, they also experienced a sense of belonging to a community and described a sense of connecting as equals. The outcomes of the study suggest that in addition to the subject-based learning, students learn skills and values during these workshops that will be important for their overall learning. The study also points to some ingredients needed for locals and refugees to work together to foster social integration, which in turn has been shown to be a predictor of well-being.