VIRTUAL MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY
Abstract
This paper presents a pedagogical framework developed within a large-scale interdisciplinary urbanism studio (9 teachers, 80 students) integrating architecture and landscape architecture. The pilot, tested fall 2025, responds to the dual challenge of ecological crisis and pedagogical misalignment, situated within the policy context of the EU Nature Restoration Law and the Global Biodiversity Framework. The project identifies a critical parallel: the fragmentation and lack of alignment in design education mirror the structural drivers of nature loss in urban development. Drawing on Constructive Alignment, the studio establishes a coherent pedagogical system where learning objectives, teaching activities, and assessment are integrated around nature-based urbanism and measurable ecological performance. Central to the framework is Simultaneous Planning and Projecting (SPP), a system-oriented design model inspired by concurrent engineering. Students work in structured teams with defined roles, negotiating across disciplines using large (5-9 m long) physical models (1:1000 and 1:100) as shared decision-making platforms. These models distinguish between fixed ecological constraints and adaptable urban parameters, enabling coordinated and evidence-based design processes. To scaffold complexity, the funnel method guides students from large environmental datasets toward actionable spatial strategies. Quantification of hydrological and ecological performance counters “greenwashing” and supports evidence-based reasoning. The studio integrates research, teaching, and practice through collaboration with municipal actors, culminating in a Simulated Planning Forum where students test proposals in real-time negotiation. The paper argues that pedagogical frameworks function as infrastructures shaping professional practice, and demonstrates how aligned, system-based education can prepare designers to operate within planetary limits
Fredrik van der Horst is a landscape architect and Assistant Professor at AHO, working with pedagogy and design methodologies grounded in ecological performance. His work focuses on understanding how form, use and natural systems interact, particularly in contexts with few applicable references. He is co-developer of the pedagogical framework and methods, used in research and teaching on Vestre Bærum, Værøy and Røst to inform planning and design decisions. His approach emphasises the site itself as reference, using fieldwork and analysis to guide multifunctional design across species.
Marja Skotheim Folde is an urbanist and Associate Professor at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), working with landscape-driven approaches to planning and design. Her work focuses on repositioning landscape as the structuring premise for development, where ecological systems, local practices, and governance processes are understood as interdependent. Through research, teaching and projects such as Vestre Bærum and the Værøy/Røst studio, she develops methods that translate ecological knowledge and local experience into operative planning frameworks. Together with van der Horst she leads the development pedagogical models that integrate territorial analysis, design, and implementation, equipping students to work across scales and disciplines in regenerative, place-specific development
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Friday 26th June, 2026