Desiring conscious, critical, careful practice — linking autoethnographic practice-based architectural design research with transformative pedagogy

Abstract

Rooted in an autoethnographic approach, this study explored how practice-based design research methods—originally developed in postgraduate architectural programmes—could be adapted to foster a more conscious, critical, careful architectural design practice for both myself and undergraduate students. This adaptation took place within a parallel-engaged pedagogy of care, drawing from the critical pedagogies of Paulo Freire, bell hooks and Boaventura De Sousa Santos, where care was taught through practising caring, towards self, others, the environment and, by extension, design, building and material processes. Evolving through seven years of action research (2019 to 2025) at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, the pedagogy engaged students and myself in parallel autoethnographic research of our design practices. Together we reflected inwardly, validating our particular ways of being and seeing through Personal Spatial Narratives and memories of past lived spatial experiences. Simultaneously, we diffractively examined the influence of our practice and educational context using (De)constructed Archives and Communities of Practice Archives. We gained conscious personal self-awareness and critical positioning within a post colonial, post-Apartheid and post #FeesMustFall institutional and practice landscape. The findings demonstrate that adapting practice-based design research methods to undergraduate education within a parallel-engaged pedagogy was transformative. It reshaped students’ perceptions of themselves by validating their diverse ways of seeing and being, thus contributing to a pluriversal architectural education in the global south. This approach not only expanded the canon and curriculum to include previously silenced voices but also critically challenged established norms in teaching, redefined institutional epistemologies and supported the academic success of previously disadvantaged students.