Participatory Methods in the Education of Architects

To understand the context, from the physical through the sociological to the economic, the architect must conduct field research. For a long time that primarily meant a tour of the location but recently, the importance of collecting the opinions of all actors of spatial development is becoming highly recognized. Moderating the conversation between all those actors’ representatives is a demanding yet rewarding task. Since the architect already considers and tries to reconcile the views of various professions in his daily work, he could be a good moderator. Therefore, practical teaching of this nature is advisable to be included in architectural education. The theoretical foundations need to be supplemented by active work on a specific task. The elective course “Participatory Design of Space” at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb, practically introduces students to the importance and application modes of participation of all relevant stakeholders in creating a cognitive fund for solving a design or planning task. The five iterations of course held so far provide interesting insights into specific situations, point out the importance of comprehensive research fieldwork as well as indicate certain challenges within introducing the participatory framework to students.