Defying a legacy or an evolving process? A post-pandemic architectural design pedagogy

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) condition has prompted serious questions about the challenges faced by the established two-century-old canons of education in architecture and urbanism. This paper establishes an evolutionary account on how design education in architecture and urbanism has arrived at the pre-Covid-19 condition, explores current challenges, and, in the process of encountering the Covid-19 condition asks the question of what the scope of opportunities is to meet these challenges. A chronological analysis of design pedagogy is undertaken to instigate a debate on its future in a post-pandemic environment. This paper captures the salient characteristics of the legacy model that is inherited from historical schools, demonstrates the influence of, and resistance to, this model (1960s), identifies the qualities of various alternatives including ten ground-breaking alternative pedagogies (1970s–1990s), highlights strengths of further alternative approaches including critical inquiry, the process-based and learning-by-making pedagogies (2000s) and the social construction-based pedagogies (2010s). Scrutinising the consequences of the Covid-19 condition and the associated ‘transitional emergency model’, the analysis articulates the persisting challenges and examines current adaptations while outlining the scope of future opportunities for a responsive design pedagogy in architecture and urbanism for a post-pandemic world.