Pedagogy 2025
Abstract
Architectural education has failed to integrate the study of how buildings are actually used, leaving graduates unprepared to design spaces that support human needs. Despite evidence linking design decisions to operational performance and wellbeing in institutional, complex and strongly programmed buildings, pedagogy emphasises aesthetics and regulatory compliance over empirical investigation. This gap in evidence-based design (EBD) integration persists despite rich transdisciplinary opportunities. Spatial practice, the interplay between physical space, organisational structures, and human activity, represents valuable pedagogical content which includes the tacit knowledge users develop through spatial interactions. Yet architectural education inadequately equips students to access or translate this knowledge into design intelligence. This paper aims to demonstrate how real-world scenarios become active resources for engaged learning and an EBD pedagogy. An interdisciplinary framework was applied to postgraduate architecture projects, integrating Lefebvre’s spatial triad and de Certeau’s strategies and tactics. Knowledge emerged through a scoping literature review, critical media analysis, ethnographic observation and interdisciplinary exchange. The method served as a pedagogical tool to enable students to critically examine gaps between design intentions and user experiences. These approaches align with social constructivism and transformative learning theory, employing research-led, inquiry-based, and project-based learning that evokes critical enquiry reflected in student projects. By reframing spatial practice as design intelligence, students learned to recognise existing buildings as repositories of spatial knowledge. This problem-based approach developed critical observation skills capable of translating embodied knowledge into evidence-based design processes, bridging academic pedagogy with industry needs in sustainability and adaptive reuse.
Janri Barker is an interior architect and access specialist with expertise in human-centred and accessible design. After completing her master’s degree cum laude at the University of Pretoria in 2010, she has practiced and taught for 15 years. In 2021, Janri co-founded All IN, an interior architecture and access specialist company. As a full-time lecturer at the University of Pretoria since 2023, she teaches undergraduates, supervises postgraduate research, and is developing a human-centred design specialisation. Currently pursuing a PhD on spatial practice in emergency departments.
Dr Jako Nice is a senior lecturer at Tshwane University of Technology, a research associate at the University of Pretoria, and the principal architect at Studio Konstruk. With over 22 years’ experience in practice and academia, he specialises in healthy buildings, spatial analytics, healthcare infrastructure, and infection control in the built environment. He held a Fogarty Research Fellowship with Harvard University and serves on various South African and international committees. He authors norms and standards guidelines for healthcare infrastructure, writes peer-reviewed publications, and supervises postgraduate research.
1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Wednesday 19th November, 2025