IN-PERSON MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY. SECTION A

Abstract

This paper repositions the pedagogical situation of the classroom, recasting the idea of site within the instructor’s own neighborhood. This approach brings professional and personal accountability, as well as a professional metric for the faculty, by engaging real-world conditions and neighbors’ voices as the primary site for community-engaged learning in architecture and design education. By anchoring experiential learning in hyperlocal contexts where instructors maintain personal stakes and long-term relationships, this method creates unique accountability structures that address persistent ethical concerns in university-community partnerships. Traditional community-engaged learning often struggles with extraction, brief interventions, and power imbalances between institutions and communities. This research explores how the hyperlocal approach—where faculty work within their own residential communities—fundamentally restructures these dynamics. When neighbors can directly provide feedback about student interactions, accountability becomes immediate, personal, and ongoing rather than abstract or institutional. Drawing from seven years of practice in North Philadelphia architecture studios, this paper documents an ethical framework for sustainable community partnerships that extend beyond a single semester to a sustained partnership that receives intentional regular nourishment. Key elements include: building relationships with community elders as knowledge holders; establishing reciprocal exchange rather than one-directional service; creating feedback loops allowing communities to shape pedagogical approaches; and maintaining multi-year commitments enabling trust-building and iterative improvement. The paper addresses critical questions: How do instructors balance professional expertise with genuine collaboration? What preparation do students need to engage respectfully across differences? How can universities move from extractive “parachute” approaches to mutuall