ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the framework of an on-campus preparatory course at Philadelphia University and a ten-day short course in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg, South Africa. In the classroom, students confronted cross-cultural preconceptions and prepared a community engagement methodology. On-site, students and community participants engaged collaboratively in a scaffolded, ten-day design exercise in which qualitative engagement combined with an asset-based community design method (including constituent interviews, investigative site inventories, and assets analyses) were employed to conduct community design charettes resulting in a master plan design proposal for the 4.6 hectare Alexandra Youth Precinct. Relevant spatial and cultural contexts of Alexandra Township are introduced, as are the situational intricacies faced by outside designers and architects within the township’s unique context. The pedagogical methodology that facilitates a dialogic collaboration between designer-students and stakeholders is explained.
