Experiential Learning in Architectural Education

Burak Pak is Professor of Architectural Collaborative Design, Collective Spaces and Digital Media at KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture. He holds a PhD from ITU Faculty of Architecture. After working at Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture and Texas A&M University VIZLab as Visiting Scholar, he worked as post-doctoral research fellow at KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture on 'Alternative Urban Projects for the Brussels Capital Region'. He is co-founder of the Altering Practices (Alt_Shift) Research Group. Burak is currently teaching design studio courses and running several international and national research projects. Burak's research covers an interdisciplinary area between architecture and urban design, participation and digital spatial media. The two main and complementary focus points are exploring and enabling bottom-up participation {in} and {through} reflexive research and design practices. His research focuses on enabling inclusion in and through design. Co-creation and co-design play a central role in the research projects he participates in through which he aims to integrate social design practices, education and research. Examples of the research projects he is involved in are: 'Networked Practices for Placemaking' (EC Co-create), 'Solidary Mobile Housing' (INNOVIRIS Co-create) and 'Incubators of Public Spaces' (JPI-Urban Europe).

Aurelie De Smet graduated in Architecture at the Hogeschool voor W&K, Sint-Lucas Gent and in Spatial Planning at the University of Ghent. After working as independent architect for several years, she was offered a grant by the Brussels-Capital Region (Innoviris) for a three-year research project on 'The Role of Temporary Use of Waiting Spaces'. This research (promoted by Prof. Kees Doevendans and Prof. Bruno De Meulder) led to a series of publications, workshops and consultancy assignments on 'temporary use', 'bottom-up urbanism' and 'tactical urban planning'. From 2014 until 2020 Aurelie worked at the Landscape Architecture Department of the Erasmus University College, where she co-founded the Centre of Expertise Tuin+. In this context, she gained considerable experience in involving landscape architecture students in practice-oriented research on 'the gardenscape'. Currently, she is working as a researcher on the 'Solidary Mobile Housing' project at the KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture and combining this with a PhD on 'Increasing Socio-spatial Resilience through Solidary Appropriation of Urban Waiting Spaces for Housing in Brussels' (promoted by Prof. Burak Pak and Prof. Yves Schoonjans). She is also a member of the Altering Practices for Urban Inclusion Research Group and is co-teaching Community-engaged Architectural Design Learning studio and elective courses at the faculty.