Purpose This article examines the potential of on-site experience in an international context in reshaping how architects and built environment students engage with diverse urban conditions. It argues that international study programs are integral to cultivating globally competent, critically engaged professionals, foregrounding the enduring pedagogical value of embodied, site-based learning as a catalyst for new forms of critical design thinking. By examining the collaborative program between UNSW Sydney and TU Wien, the article demonstrates how cross-institutional collaboration enables the international co-production of architectural learning – rather than one-way exposure to another context–and models a hybrid pedagogy that bridges research, teaching and practice. Design/methodology/approach This research adopts a hybrid methodological framework that combines narrative inquiry, experiential case study, and reflective practice. Drawing on data from course material, student reflections, field journals, and on-site collaborations, the study conceptualises Vienna's long tradition of social and affordable housing as an urban laboratory for complex pedagogical experimentation. Findings Site-specific and experientially based programs extend and challenge conventional curricula, enhancing student capacities for observation, interpretation, and ethical engagement. Through the direct engagement of daily site visits, students develop a deeper understanding of architecture's civic role and responsiveness to diverse social and spatial contexts. The study demonstrates that hybrid, experiential pedagogies can extend conventional curricula by linking research, teaching, and practice through situated inquiry. Originality/value By positioning Vienna's affordable housing history (also called Model Vienna) as both subject and methodological framework, the paper contributes a model of hybrid pedagogy that integrates narrative, ethnographic, and reflective dimensions of learning. It advances the concept of the city as an urban laboratory, where movement between cultural, disciplinary, and experiential registers generates new forms of methodological and pedagogical knowledge. The study offers a transferable framework for educators seeking to combine global mobility with embodied, site-based inquiry in professional education. Finally, it contributes to debates on internationalised architectural pedagogy by demonstrating how embodied, site-based learning fosters ethical, reflective, and globally engaged practitioners.
Alić et al. (Fri,) studied this question.