Author:

Keywords:

intercultural exchange, transdisciplinarity, research-by-design, architectural and urban design education

Abstract:

In the past two years, the Department of Architecture of the University of Moratuwa (UoM) in collaboration with the Faculty of Architecture of KU Leuven (Belgium) has organized international student workshops as part of the International Conference Cities, People and Places (ICCPP workshops). These well-attended events offered bachelor and master students of UoM and other universities in Sri Lanka and abroad an opportunity to experiment with a practice-based research approach towards architecture and urban design. This involved a conceptual and methodological framework that put the students who supplied base-line fieldwork material interchangeably in the roles of researchers, clients and designers. In addition, the exercise sharpened intercultural awareness and exchange as local and foreign students mingled in working on widely diverging case studies gathered in Sri Lanka and abroad. This article outlines the conceptual framework of this initiative and the format developed in view of the workshop objectives. It then reviews how the first of these workshops was initiated, prepared, and conducted. Next, it critically assesses the envisaged outcomes in terms of concept, method, logistics and learning process. Final reflections outline the lessons learnt and way and, in view of participants’ response propose to further elaborate this experimental approach as part of the ICCPP events and possibly apply it to other similar initiatives.