Redesigning the urban design studio: Two learning experiments

The main aim of this paper is to discuss how the combination of Web 2.0, social media and geographic technologies can provide opportunities for learning and new forms of participation in an urban design studio. This discussion is mainly based our recent findings from two experimental urban design studio setups as well as former research and literature studies. We will reveal our observations on the perceived affordances and challenges of using web 2.0 based social geographic platforms in these design studios. We question the nature of learning and participation that takes place; drawing on the learning experiences of the students; as well as the traces of their online activity logs. This study should be conceived as a continuation of a series of our "Design Studio 2.0" experiments which involve the exploitation of opportunities provided by novel socio-geographic information and communication technologies for the improvement of the design learning processes.