The International Shanghai Joint Design Studio: A Hybrid and Adaptive Platform to Enhance Cultural Encounter

The International Shanghai Joint Design Studio was a work-in-progress platform that started in August 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic and ended in July 2020 with the publication of the initiative’s outcomes. It combined the studios of 5 Schools of Design located in 4 different countries with the aim of sharing ideas and reflections about the development of projects located in a common area in Shanghai. Thanks to its adaptive, collaborative, and flexible structure, the joint studio could overcome the difficulties caused by the outbreak through the integration of innovative and hybrid teaching & learning methods while developing both a virtual and a physical space of co-creation and engagement for students, scholars, designers, and citizens. Through the involvement of cohorts of various grades and majors, the students were constantly exposed to very diverse design approaches and planning practices. In this way, it became a place to enhance cross-cultural encounter among different design disciplines and backgrounds while encouraging both the learners and the tutors to develop innovative and multidisciplinary points of view about the city and the built environment. In this paper, the authors draw a general reflection about how cross-cultural practices have been implemented through the activities of the initiative and concretely address shortcomings and suggest possible recommendations for future similar pedagogical experiments.