As rural-urban migration continues, much of the population finds itself in urban areas, which, in most contexts, offer significantly greater opportunities with fewer social restrictions on the livelihood possibilities available to the urban poor. However, these opportunities are increasingly mediated by digital platforms and will be realised only if such platform-based urban development is tailored to the livelihood aspirations of the poor. Currently, there is a focus on place-based economic investments in the built environment that prioritise brick-and-mortar businesses. These businesses rely on sophisticated supply chains to provide and service retail activity. The benefits behind these place-based developments could be argued to accrue largely to the formal economy.

This paper explores learning experience design as an iterative, reflective, and inclusive praxis through the development and application of the African Abacus, a visual taxonomy designed to map and evaluate inclusive learning design processes. Responding to gaps in the literature on collaborative reflection within non-formal learning contexts in the Global South, the study examines how multidisciplinary design teams conceptualised and created online short courses for a newly established architecture school in South Africa. Anchored in Freirean praxis and ecosystem-of-learning theory, the research adopts an autoethnographic approach in which seven contributors reflected on their roles, decisions, and projected student experiences.

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?

The practice and the teaching of Typography in South Africa has yet to undergo radical or substantive changes in light of the multiple shifts and developments in critical thinking that has taken place in Academia and contemporary visual practice in recent years. While contemporaneous thinking has “ forced a change “ in many disciplines in light of the Postmodern, Post Colonial and other “Post” posturing that challenge the dominance of Europe and the West as the centre, very little of the core imperatives of these schools of thought has found its way into the development and thinking around Typography in South Africa save a few seminal books and teachers.