Co-Creating Urban Strategies through Trans-Local Learning Alliances

This chapter contends that research-based design, trans-local learning alliances, and critical pedagogy are pivotal for framing urban design as a progressive co-creative process. It illustrates the pedagogical project of the “Overseas Practice Engagement” of the MSc on Building and Urban Design in Development at University College London in partnership with diverse local organisations in the city of Medellin, Colombia. Using a living heritage framework, the pedagogical strategy of digital co-design addresses the “real world” problem of how to counteract threads of eviction and channel people-centred “slum upgrading” strategies in the neighbourhood of Moravia. The chapter concludes considering the repertoire of collaborative outputs for distributed public engagement highlighting the potential and limitations of collaborative remote work.