Design educators have been trying for the past decades to frame real-world problems in the context of studio-based practices through the lens of economic design logic as the status quo. Such studio-based design pedagogy distances students from real-world problems, leading to poor problem definition resulting from poor understanding and not experiencing the problem firsthand. In order to counter such a conservative design problem-solving approach some design educators have adopted nomadic pedagogy, which promotes curious-emphatic design approach that embraces performative enactment to generate solutions based on a well-defined problem.

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.

To thrive in the fast-paced fashion industry, graduates must possess critical skill sets upon entering the workforce to ensure they are fully prepared for employment. This immediate need from the fashion industry necessitates that students gain practical, experience-based inputs from the fashion curricula pitched within the fashion higher education environment.

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 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.

In recent years, digital fabrication has become an increasingly popular tool in the design field. By integrating digital manufacturing techniques into the design process, designers can produce more innovative and sustainable products while minimising material waste. In this paper, we present a model of approach that incorporates digital fabrication into the prototyping of interior design products using Origami-based techniques. Origami, the antique art of paper folding, has long been admired for its beauty and precision. One of the main benefits of Origami-based techniques is that they provide a way to create complex forms using only simple folds, transforming a bi-dimensional surface into a 3D object.

Design education is an integral part of the architectural student’s journey. Traditionally, in the undergraduate course, emphasis is placed on the skills development of conceptual sketching, model making, storytelling, and various communications of the concept and design processes. However, these skills are often seen as separate parts and taught as such without always utilising the opportunities to integrate these various aspects and parts into a holistic process. Architectural artisanship is a vital part of design acumen and must be seen as a skill that facilitates the design process rather than a separate entity.

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.

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.

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).

As emerging digital technologies become increasingly integrated into our everyday lives, it is important to evaluate how they can be used both as beneficial tools in the design process and how they can be effectively integrated into higher education pedagogy to enhance teaching and learning processes. As we enter the fast-changing Industry 4.0, students must be suitably and sufficiently equipped with a wide range of skills that Industry 4.0 requires. This includes the “hard skills” of practically using emerging digital technologies, as well as the “soft skills” required to effectively apply these technologies in sustainable and ethical ways.

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.

By 2025, the number of older persons globally will surpass the number of young individuals (World Health Organization 2022). Research consistently highlights the preference for ageing in a familiar home environment, enabling the elderly to remain in their homes and avoid institutionalisation. In order to facilitate this, homes need to be adapted to cater to the changing physical and emotional needs of the elderly. Design professionals responsible for these adaptations are typically trained to address the functional requirements of the built environment. However, they may overlook the importance of a life-centred approach, which prioritises the long-term well-being of the users.

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.

Over the past twelve years, the University of Johannesburg Department of Graphic Design students have developed many feasible solutions based on human-centred and participation design principles. Implementing these design solutions to foster positive change is often problematic owing to funding and handovers; consequently, many projects remain at the conceptual stage, with few making a positive difference to the external stakeholders. Nevertheless, despite these challenges, students often produce high-end and in-depth results when working with stakeholders.

City branding involves establishing unique identities for cities using branding principles. While Johannesburg and Cape Town are among Africa's best-branded cities, their branding strategies were largely top-down, lacking collaborative stakeholder engagement. In the wake of the global pandemic that severely impacted tourism, there is an urgent need to revise these strategies through a co-creative approach.

In South Africa, city branding activities can benefit the local tourism sector, which was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with strict lockdown measures leading to a standstill in tourism activities throughout 2020 and 2021. As restrictions eased and businesses in the sector aimed to revive tourism, innovative approaches became necessary.

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.

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.

This paper builds on previous research and the insights gained from thematic analysis of reflections by students and educator panels on an online collaborative problem-based learning (CPBL) project across four campuses at a South African private higher education institution. The research found a strong connection between student and educator reflections and reveals that collaborative project-based learning (CPBL) is crucial to building students' confidence in transdisciplinary collaboration within a real-world online setting. Consequently, the researchers begin this paper with a proposed framework for fostering confident transdisciplinary CPBL online.