Paper

Avoiding the Imperialist Agenda when Designing for the Developing World

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Abstract

Overly technical modes of sustainable development can reinforce power dynamics implicit in imperialism. In response, this research explores a low-tech, accessible approach to sustainable innovation in developing regions, working at the material scale, so that local can control their own spatial and aesthetic autonomy. This paper will share the results from a review of public health, building science, and architectural literature exploring the role that unintentionally imperialist pedagogies play as tools for western exploitation in developing regions. Building off of this evidence base, this paper will close with examples of anti-imperialist workflows in architectural education, exploring the synergies between public health, material science, and design. These student-led innovations suggest opportunities for developing novel partnerships that integrate topics that tend to be studied separately and leverage the imperative to respond to the health effects of climate change with methods that advance human health and equity concurrently.

Keywords: Pedagogy, sustainability, anti-imperialism, developing countries, rural Africa

How to Cite:

McCormick, E. & Deshpande, L., (2023) “Avoiding the Imperialist Agenda when Designing for the Developing World”, Building Technology Educators’ Society 2023(1), 172-177. doi: https://doi.org/10.7275/btes.1950