Building Up: An Ethnographic Approach to Campus Planning for Climate

In conjunction with Design Thinking methodologies, ethnography becomes a mode of invention (not just discovery, cf. Venkatesan et al. 2013), devising concepts that invite workshop participants to push past assumptions and imagine freely.

This iterative feedback loop enables ethnography-driven design to build up over time. The outcome is a more incisive, thoughtful, community-grounded design. But along the way, it builds rapport enabling honest exchanges, creative confidence to tackle challenges, and visions for the future—even decades down the road, in different environmental conditions—that guide present work.</p>