The Studio as Advocacy, Entrepreneurship and the Development of a Social Consciousness: A Design Project on Aboriginal Lands

This paper explores the studio experience of a University of Canberra landscape architecture subject that was partially undertaken in the field at the Aboriginal community of Cherbourg, Queensland, Australia. The twelve week studio program, which began in March 2013, required fifteen senior undergraduate students to develop design concepts for a proposed material recycling facility on the fringes of the Cherbourg community. Working together with Aboriginal community partners, and based on a design brief provided by the local Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council, a design studio was formulated that was framed on the concepts of design as advocacy and entrepreneurship, and how the design process can lead to the development of a social consciousness amongst designers. This paper explains the context of the studio, experiences in the field, and the educational benefits of the design collaboration to the students and the Aboriginal community itself. Further, the paper highlights the challenges of maintaining field-based studios in the face of the academy leaning towards the delivery of landscape architecture design content online.