Fostering Cosmopolitan Citizenship through a Multi-Country Joint Studio Project

The issues of global justice and cultural diversity in architectural education have been discussed for a number of years as our field continues to lack diversity when compared to other professions, and to society as a whole. An important tenet of architectural education is to expose students to a broad range of views and ideas across various cultures, and with the acceptance of this tenet, it is relevant for architectural education to foster cultural diversity and therefore activate the precept of cosmopolitan citizenship. This case study examines how cross-cultural collaboration supports students in their development of cosmopolitan citizenship through the shared story of an architectural design project. We are constantly exposed, through social media and various online platforms, to works and ideas outside our cultural sphere, but it does not mean that we gain the kind of insight that can be applied in a professional context by way of these external stimuli. In the context of the globalization of culture, and considering our innate tendency to view foreign ideas through the lens of our cultural pre-conceptions, we can ask the following question: how can we create the conditions for a meaningful cultural experience that would lead to understanding a position different from our own? This paper will discuss an experimental studio project developed in the summer of 2022 aimed at introducing students to a different set of cultural positions through a design brief with a strong narrative premise. This approach allowed students to extend the story in various ways according to their own cultural and design backgrounds. We postulate that this experience would help students appreciate diversity of thought through the design of an architectural project, while providing the opportunity to engage in cosmopolitan citizenship.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Teach.2023.55

Volume Editors
Massimo Santanicchia

ISBN
978-1-944214-44-9