Canadian Contexts: Place as Pedagogy

How can place be used as a pedagogy? How can place be used to deconstruct architectural education, for example, by engaging with deeper, more meaningful contexts? This begs the question: Why do we not more deliberately teach Other architectural voices and ontologies, particularly those that draw upon and listen to Indigenous perspectives about issues such as sustainability, climate change and context? This paper questions how ‘place’ can be used as a transdisciplinary methodology applied to many different fields and disciplines (including architecture, design and human geography in this paper) to contend with a myriad of complex and deeply intertwined contemporary dilemmas facing students today, ranging from post-colonialism to catastrophic climate collapse using autoethnography, phenomenology, alongside other methods such as storytelling and ‘spatialization’. The paper focuses on a particular assignment centered on the notion of place that is then tested and analyzed using three very different student groups at three very different Canadian university campuses. The background and context for this assignment is presented in terms of exploring and discussing a broad range of literature and theoretical texts to form a foundation for this exercise, followed by unpacking how ‘place’ is understood and applied to student work. A material example of a highly successful response is provided, with analysis of outcomes and approaches throughout. The goal of this paper and this ongoing project is to demonstrate how this approach and the centrality of ‘place’ presents a pedagogical alternative to traditional essays and assignments. This project directly draws upon ongoing work in critical pedagogy, decolonization, post-colonialism and vernacular and Indigenous design theories and practices.