DESIGN ANTHROPOLOGY
at the School of Industrial Design (Carleton University)
the Master course IDES5500 ‘Design Anthropology’, designed and taught by Dr. Chiara Del Gaudio at the School of Industrial Design (Carleton University) in the Winter term of 2023 asks students to explore what Design Anthropology is and how to practice it by engaging with the concept of Urban Imaginaries.
the students are practicing design anthropology by participating in the second edition of the ‘Urban Imaginaries Ottawa’ project and engaging with the theme:‘Financialization of housing’.
the class will engage with the following directions (as sub-themes): 1) “renovictions”; 2) ‘ghost’ neighbourhoods; and, 3) the often-invisible corporate ‘homes‘ of transnational groups moving housing money around globally.
the students will take part in explorations of the neighbourhood, design and implement a critical mapping process, and produce an “Ethnography of the Possible” which is a representation that shares their learnings, reflections, and envisioned urban imaginaries.
collective exploration of a neighbourhood
co-facilitated by Chiara and Dan, on February 13, 2023, students from the Design Anthropology master’s course were guided on an exploratory urban walk where they looked at transitioning neighbourhoods, financialization of housing, and signs of community investment in and around Sandy Hill.
the students observed the urban context, collected data, and focused on mapping the process of the financialization of housing, the infrastructures and mechanisms that inform them, and the resulting implications on the life of the neighbourhood.