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.