Social Inclusion: When community outreach becomes the core of architectural education. Facts and figures about a studio in the Master programme Architecture and Planning Beyond Sustainability 2014-2018 at Chalmers

Report, 2019

This study is part of the international research project “Stitching the city – From micro-data to macro-views” that aims to establish a transdisciplinary collaboration between the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
In the project a methodological framework and digital platform for the collection, storage, and sharing of spatial, socio-economic data at a street- and precinct level is developed and adapted to local conditions.
The platform is developed for educational purpose and tested in two areas: Mamelodi-East in the City of Tshwane, South Africa, and Hammarkullen in Gothenburg, Sweden. The places have been chosen by the aforementioned universities as case studies of economically marginalised or segregated residential areas. Both universities have been running student projects and design studios in the areas, the Urban Citizen Studio in South Africa and the Design and Planning for Social Inclusion studio in Sweden. In this report, the focus is on the Swedish studio.
Each year the students gather a remarkable amount of data while working on their studio projects. Nevertheless, such data are not adequately stored and not made accessible for students working in the same area in the following academic years. There is a lack of systematization in the way data are collected and a lack of knowledge on how the data that have been gathered were used through the years. Filling in this knowledge gap is key to obtaining a systematic organization of data that can be later incorporated in a shared digital platform.