Towards culturally responsive and responsible teaching of urban design

The era of globalisation is characterised by demands for ecological and cultural sustainability. Those demands request reintroduction of indigenous voices and values, recognition of the local and awareness about the particular. The post-colonial sensitivity asks for partnerships, rather than patronage. In that context internationalised design education needs to consider some new questions: Are Western ways of thinking (including analysis and design methods) directly applicable to the East? To what extent do educational, design and design research methods belong to the cultural contexts that have shaped them? Does the otherness of Oriental cultures demand new approaches? How to educate designers capable not only to recognise, but also to celebrate the difference of the other? Can, and should, design education of and for the other be deliberately and manifestly different from the usual practice? This paper argues that design education, research and practice should recognise the origins and the limits of their own theories, acknowledging that they carry both idio-lects and socio-lects. It also argues that the other can, and sometimes should remain the other - even that Derrida's tout autre. The paper is illustrated with examples from the author's own teaching and research experiences in cultures significantly different from his own.