Next time, with empathy: revisiting the studio pedagogy for transitional housing for refugees

Purpose Showing empathy can be, at best, a tricky prospect; teaching empathy is downright daunting. The authors taught an interior design studio project that designed hypothetical transitional housing for refugees coming to Canada. As the project evolved, it became imperative that students needed to address tangible issues experienced by the refugee client, namely trauma, rootlessness and marginalization and authentically empathize with their client. Hence, instructors needed to accurately structure and facilitate this engagement. The purpose of this paper is to present a summary of the evolution of this studio project as a case study, the revision of the project's pedagogical goals and establishing a new set of design parameters that engage the “self” and the “other” through alternate modes of thinking and reasoning. Design/methodology/approach The paper is centered on a reflective case study of the studio project and the student's work. The results of the reflection are contextualized within pedagogical framework that emphasize alternate forms of teaching and learning that promotes authentic empathetic engagement. Findings The summary of these reflections arises from organically questioning the nature of traditional design studio pedagogy. It proposes divergent approaches, such as “abductive reasoning”, posing the project as a “wicked problem” to encourages lateral explorations and connections. Originality/value This paper questions the value of prescriptive design process and guides student learning by providing an experimental toolkit that encourages alternative exploration, research and thinking.