Third space pedagogy and community-based park design in Austin, Texas

Abstract

The complex, diverse, and embodied nature of Latin(o/a/x) placemaking calls for place-based pedagogy that foregrounds intimate learning outside the confines of the classroom. A ‘third space’ approach to landscape pedagogy seeks to facilitate co-production with residents in a variety of outdoor learning spaces, thus fostering landscape literacy by encouraging students to grapple with the multiple meanings of Latin(o/a/x) landscapes while challenging top-down, expert-driven placemaking discourses. We assess the learning outcomes from a one-year, two-semester studio sequence that produced a community-based design proposal for a neglected city park in Austin, Texas. The outdoor learning spaces provided diverse opportunities for critical and creative engagement, relationship building, and co-production of research processes, cultivating critical awareness of the complex social contingencies of places, actors, and placemaking practices. Such a third space approach to landscape studio pedagogy can contribute to more just, participatory place-based landscape design in Latin(o/a/x) landscapes.