Learning inclusion in action: Teaching UD in Danish architectural and design education

This paper presents a framework within which Universal Design (UD) is taught at the Institute of Architecture and Design (IBD), the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Design and Conservation (KADK). At the IBD, the theme UD is not only integrated into course modules, but also offered as special lectures, seminars and workshops across the institute which champion the importance of people-centred approaches in design. Two courses given to students for studying master’s degrees at the IBD – Material Includes and Different Bodies – are described in this paper. Using these examples, the paper underscores the important role of users’ knowledge in design processes and describes how students – future architects and designers – mobilise gained knowledge and develop new knowledge while engaging with design tasks given. The analysis made in this paper is based on two theoretical distinctions between: context-dependent and context-independent knowledge on the one hand; and imagined space of architects and lived space of users on the other. The developed analytical model based on these distinctions articulates how students have learned and used knowledge in design process, upon which this paper conclusively champions the importance of UD education that is situated in contexts where design is not only used but also made.