Next (Re)Generation Architectural Education: Disrupting design pedagogy through social lab processes

There is a need for radical disruption of architectural education in the context of the growing crises of climate change and environmental and social injustice. This paper reflects on collaborative live projects between Birmingham City University students and social lab, CoLab Dudley in Dudley, UK: an experimental form of infrastructure creating conditions for cultural action rooted in long-term thinking, collective imagination and regenerative design. We explore how collaboration with a social lab can provide an experimental, systemic and social setting to disrupt normative architectural education, and the qualities and techniques creating the fertile ground for this to be successful.