The university as agent of change in the city: Co-creation of live community architecture

Sara, Rachel and Jones, Matthew (2018) The university as agent of change in the city: Co-creation of live community architecture. International Journal of Architectural Research: ArchNet-IJAR, 12 (1). pp. 326-337. ISSN 1938-7806

[img] Text
IJAR_SaraJones_final.docm.docx - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (2MB)

Abstract

Universities have a civic responsibility towards the cities of which they are a part. This is typically operationalized through Outreach and Engagement, which aims to share and apply the expertise and knowledge generated by the university with communities. The model is typically a one-direction path from the University to communities, but there is potential for the engagement to take on more of a two-way collaboration, in which there is an intent to generate new knowledge and enact positive change. This paper reflects on the practice of hands-on-bristol, a collective bringing community members, architects, trainee architects, and academics together to co-create projects. This practice is conceived as a form of Spatial Civic Agency that empowers a community organization to participate in making and re-making their places. Projects typically involve a process of co-creation, bringing into consciousness the conditions that shape a community’s place in their world and catalyzing possibilities that seemingly cannot otherwise be unlocked. The paper analyses the process of the projects using four key civic agency concepts which identify a need to: Involve the citizen as co-creator; Engage with public and community places; Reconceptualise the role of the professional; and Understand democracy as a lived social and cultural experience grounded in everyday life. The analysis suggests that this participatory approach to education questions the primary focus of education as provider of practice-ready graduates and makes a place for the University as civic agent with transformative potential to co-create more sustainable, resilient communities.

Item Type: Article
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.26687/archnet-ijar.v12i1.1286
Dates:
DateEvent
9 January 2018Accepted
1 March 2018Published Online
Subjects: CAH13 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01 - architecture, building and planning > CAH13-01-01 - architecture
Divisions: Faculty of Arts, Design and Media > Birmingham School of Architecture and Design
Depositing User: Matthew Jones
Date Deposited: 01 Apr 2019 11:35
Last Modified: 12 Jan 2022 13:21
URI: https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/7221

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Research

In this section...