Teaching for Inclusivity

Abstract

As architects, we must think about improving people’s quality of life through the spaces we design, spaces where human life unfolds. Therefore, our architectural designs must consider the diversity of users and situations that can affect our lives temporarily or permanently. As teachers, we must ask ourselves what we are doing to change what does not contemplate said diversity. As teachers, we are responsible for training future generations of architects to consider not only accessibility and universal design in their projects but also the inclusive communication of the architectural project and thus guarantee “leaving no one behind”. This article shows, as an example of good practice, the didactic methodology used in an architectural design course at a university in Lima, Peru, where students interact from the beginning of their training with real users; users with disabilities, the elderly and children to learn by putting themselves in the place of the other. Different sensory strategies emerge from these interactions that seek to offer with equity different ways of bringing users closer to architecture and to the different situations and atmospheres that it is capable of achieving. Leaving no one behind also means training future architects to achieve equitable and inclusive cities and societies.