Teaching Beyond the Curriculum
Abstract
Principles of universal and inclusive design are critical in ensuring diverse populations can safely and comfortably navigate the built environment. Despite their importance, imparting these principles effectively to students in higher education can pose challenges, especially where students lack their own lived experiences of mobility challenges. This presentation introduces ‘The Universal Design Game’, an educational tool created to address this pedagogical need. An example of a ‘serious game’, this board game introduces participants to real-life scenarios and challenges faced by individuals and communities with lived experiences of temporary and long-term impairments. Using design personas, the game asks participants to negotiate and reflect upon universal and inclusive design principles in a range of urban scenarios, through the lens of someone with an impairment. Taking an autoethnographic-inspired approach, we draw from three years of teacher reflections, detailing the iterative journey of designing, deploying, and refining the game based on annual trials with successive cohorts of university students in Ōtepoti Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand. Insights from these trials underscore the game’s effectiveness in fostering not only understanding of universal design concepts, but also an appreciation for the power and impact of design decisions on individuals and communities, including the degrees to which they can move around, reside in, connect with and enjoy their surrounding environments. While further empirical testing and refinement is planned, the Universal Design Game is emerging as a compelling pedagogical tool, bridging theory with practical application, and could offer valuable insights for educators in architecture, urban design, and related domains.
Dr James Berghan is a Senior Lecturer at the Wellington School of Architecture. As an indigenous scholar, James has a keen interest in the interrelationships between people and the built environment, particularly through an equity lens. His current work includes research on indigenous conceptions of ‘home’, particularly for rangatahi (young Māori) and mātāwaka (Māori living away from their ancestral lands), as well as community co-design projects exploring climate-resilient kāinga (Māori villages).
Dr Crystal Victoria Olin specialises in urban design, with a particular interest in neighbourhoods, contested notions of ‘community’ and ‘home’, expressions of identity and belonging, and challenges/opportunities around achieving high quality medium density development. She explores how alternative placemaking approaches (past or present) can open up insights and possibilities for new, more responsive and sustainable urbanisation that supports wellbeing. Her current research focuses on community infrastructure and urban design associated with public housing in Aotearoa New Zealand. Crystal has a successful track record of leadership in urban design through practice, local government, research and university teaching in different international contexts.
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Wednesday 15th November, 2023