Accessible Design Education

I really enjoyed Alejandro Aravena's approach, and to me, it highlights the critical component to successful participatory design - engaging with a culture you are a part of. In my opinion, where participatory design falls apart is when people who are outside of a community and, therefore, don't have an understanding of a community's worldview and way of life attempt to address the needs of that community through design. In that way, design can become a deterministic bastardized projection of what a community wants or needs. A projection that is reductive, nonresponsive, inefficient, or the worst-case scenario for architecture - irrelevant. Aravena's practice exemplifies the impact and need for accessible design education such that people in every community are equipped to holistically address their own needs, context, and culture.