Collaborative Community Practice: Evaluating Partnerships and Pedagogy

Abstract

University-based community design centers are unique in their position within a network of both academic and community relationships. While design centers follow different models, this paper applies an evaluative framework to one university-based community design practice that centers teaching and collaborative professional projects. This paper will unpack how the Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) operates within the School of Architecture (SOA) at the University of Detroit Mercy, offering educational oppor¬tunities for students to explore community-engaged design practice, as well as how the practice operates within a net¬work of community partners citywide on a range of projects and with an emphasis on collaboration. This paper seeks to identify and share outcomes associated with community design practice in terms of both student and community collaborator experience through an evolving evaluative practice. The paper includes perspectives from an evaluative framework currently under development and aims to illustrate and offer initial lessons for both the learning experience and collaborative design process. Overall, this research and paper aim to draw lessons from community design practice related to both pedagogy and partnerships, and where they intersect.