This research reflects on the future of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and Pattern Theory in architectural and design education and how it may inform the design process, projects, assessments, and research in this space. We are increasingly bombarded by new technologies and an abundance of information. The rapid evolvement of AI has created many uncertainties. Might AI take away our jobs? Will AI kill creativity? How will we know who has produced the work? How do we as educators and students make sense of these technologies and use it (or not) in our education and practice? Can we possibly discover through AI new tools and possibilities and ways of working that contribute positively to what we do?

In the 2021 publication, 'The Ontology of Design Research', Miguel Angel Herrera Batista argues that the ongoing development of postgraduate programmes in design has led to a growing focus on establishing the field of inquiry as an independent and differentiated research area. For design research to contribute to disciplinary development, researchers need to focus not only on procedural rigour but also on ensuring that the philosophical foundations of selected methodological approaches align with the ontological reality of design. It is, therefore, necessary to encourage postgraduate students to investigate both familiar and novel research methodologies in the search for appropriate approaches to design research projects.

Students in Design Education are equipped to enter their respective creative industries. It is the intention that their skills and capabilities, once they graduate, are matched as closely as possible to the industries into which they will fit. During their time within the higher education faculty, they need to be exposed to relevant technologies and processes. By adapting manufacturing technologies for small-scale use in the classroom, students can gain hands-on experience and integrate these technologies into their learning processes.

Starting in the 1990s in South Africa, according to Sauthoff, designers in general and graphic designers in particular have sought to create an inimitable design style that is imbued with a recognisable (South) Afrikan cultural identity. This is in reaction to the entrenched hegemonic influence of Euro-American design practices. Names like Saki Mafundikwa, Karabo Poppy, Garth Walker, and Sindiso Nyoni are on the influential list of designers bracketing a so-called African design aesthetic. How is this ‘aesthetic’ related to design that is culturally significant, according to Twigger Holroyd, and that lends authenticity to an artefact, positioning it as representative of Afrikanness?

Design anthropologists Gatt and Ingold's concept of correspondence describes a designed artefact's ability to appropriately represent a given community's perspectives. For design-researchers operating in co-design contexts, correspondence is helpful for ensuring that final outcomes are 'tuned' to the current and aspirational experiences of user-communities.

However, while design-researchers working in practice-led contexts share many concepts and techniques with their design anthropology colleagues, this paper argues that for Design approaches concerned with plausible, anticipatory perspectives, correspondence is a limited concept that can hamper the role of design imagination. In response to this claim, this paper contributes the following outcomes.

The multifaceted structure of higher education often limits the full integration of design and construction teaching in schools of architecture, but the potential for a greater intersection of these knowledge bases does exist. Design education in the architecture studio is typically taught through a linear process, where students are required to produce a concept design, followed by a series of design iterations and lastly, technification of the design. Similarly, in practice, this process is linear, starting with a design phase followed by a construction phase. In both scenarios, this process leads to a predictable design outcome. Contrastingly, a circular design process has the potential to allow for a more open-ended negotiation with material, technology, process, and making.

This paper aims to evaluate how teaching and learning can better equip future designers by integrating advanced digital technologies into the design process. During the continuous unfolding of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in South Africa, it is important to consider how to advance design curricula in order to prepare design students for an ever-changing working world. Both the South African Department of Trade Industry and Competition and the South African Furniture Initiative have shown increasing interest in cultivating our local furniture industry. This shows potential for re-imagining the pedagogical approach to furniture design, a traditional avenue within Industrial Design, for a local and advancing industry.

The design higher education system of today will not be applicable to the demands and requirements of tomorrow (Munir & Nudin 2021). Furthermore, Generation Alpha introduces a new challenge to our current education systems, demanding a new approach to education. Accordingly, Karen Gross, the author of Breakaway learners, believes that universities should begin adapting to cater to Generation Alpha, suggesting that thinking ahead is crucial in planning and contemplating the future's implications (Hall 2017).

Decolonisation has gained significant attention within South African public higher education, fuelled greatly by the Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall movements of 2015 and 2016, with many institutions looking to address historical biases and promote a more inclusive curriculum.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is a key driver of innovation across all sectors and in education it has the power to optimise teaching and learning to benefit educators and students alike. However, the increasing prominence and influence of AI in domains previously exclusive to humans, such as design, raises urgent questions about the assessment of learning in design education. Recent writings in the field of design education agree that in the age of AI, educators need to revisit existing assessment practices. Conversations about AI and assessment practices appear to revolve around upholding academic integrity and defining what should be assessed when students can create design outcomes using generative AI.

Higher education institutions have an ever-increasing role to play in the creative economy of South Africa. The relationship between higher education institutions and the creative economy manifests through the skills, training, and knowledge transferred to students, thereby supporting this economy through job creation, addressing Sustainable Development Goal 8. The local fashion industry is a creative industry of which the custom-made fashion designer is essential. These designers offer locally made traditional and culturally specific custom-made garments to customers in South Africa that communicate the culturally significant heritage of their wearer.

Community service learning (CSL), generally known as service learning, is a method of teaching and learning in which specific needs in the community are combined with learning objectives and goals to stimulate meaningful learning experiences. CSL provides students with opportunities to relate and channel what they have learned in the classroom to real-life situations in the community. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in integrating CSL into higher education training programmes.

The MakersLab is a new creative space within a leading South African design education institution. The space encourages creative intersections to bridge the 4IR knowledge gap with sustainable development goals, 4IR and explorative making. Over the past year, the development and integration of the MakersLab have been integral in establishing educator/student relationships. The development of the MakersLab is seen as an ‘incubator’ for change whilst navigating current socio-economic and gender development gaps. Here, the space aims to foster user needs, develop new ways of thinking, and engage with the community. The fast development of technology means that educators learn from students as much as students learn from educators.

Despite the change over time in academia's gender profile, educationalists Bradley and Oldham (2020) challenge what they perceive to be the perpetuation of "gendered norms of productivity and the mythical notion of work-life balance". Bradley and Oldham (2020) argue that these concepts "endlessly complicate the conceptualisation and operationalisation of the female academic's success" and take the position that "[w]omen cannot give in to this concept of two separate worlds, which splinters the self". They propose a reflective practice that prompts female academics to "claim our entire personhood, professional and parent if we are to seek freedom from feeling 'torn' between these spheres".

In this paper, the authors reflect on the findings from a building information modelling (BIM) literature review, which comprises contemporary literature from the past five years, considering national and international development of BIM implementations, focusing on the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries. This study acknowledges BIM as a digitalisation breakthrough that emerged in the third industrial revolution (3IR) and evolved rapidly within the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). BIM technology instils the attribute of being a contributive team member in co-designed projects and facilitates effective project outcomes by reducing time, cost, wastage, environmental impact and energy consumption.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is rapidly blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological worlds through advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and other technologies. While Industry 4.0 is transforming our future realities, it is essential not to lose sight of human needs and basic human rights. Development must balance social, economic, and environmental sustainability, which is why designers need to engage with ethical considerations and social realities. One example of a technology that has both potential benefits and ethical threats is nanotechnology. Nanobots, machine versions of bacteria or viruses, can perform pre-programmed tasks autonomously at the atomic level.

Postgraduate students in South Africa and other developing nations face substantial hurdles in completing their research, despite efforts to boost research output and garner subsidies from the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). Key issues include research capacity development and supervision burdens. The potential of conversational AIs, like ChatGPT, as research assistants, has been discussed, but more research needs to be focused on using ChatGPT to support novice and student researchers, especially within resource-poor Global South contexts. Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT can support the scientific research process, assisting in generating research questions, developing methodology, creating experiments, analysing data, and writing manuscripts.

More than 650 million people worldwide suffer from a disability, be it visible or invisible. As a communication designer, I began to question the design of the International Symbol of Access  – in particular, how it failed to represent invisible disabilities. As my investigation deepened, I encountered the full range of disabilities represented in YouTubeä advertisements.

Collaboration is recognised as essential in the process of solving large-scale complex problems and can therefore be observed in both the design industry and in design education. As part of design collaboration, design teams go through a process of framing the design problem, proposing potential solutions, and taking the steps required to produce an outcome. Framing, as originally defined by Schön (1999), provides a method to identify the decisions that a design team takes on their journey to establish potential design solutions. Ideally, for a collaboration to be successful design teams need to arrive at a share frame characterised by a common understanding of the problem, solution, and actions.

In exploring the significance of metropolitan open space systems in building meaningful city brands, the researcher utilised Visual Narrative Inquiry to explore the opinions, perceptions and lived experiences of Durban residents and its’ metropolitan open space system. As a design-based practitioner, the researcher grappled with finding suitable ‘meaning-making’ methodologies that would answer to both the academic rigour required of a master’s dissertation as well as their own needs to visually make sense of the ideas, theories, models, and metrices.