Transdisciplinary Urbanism:

Public toilets play a key role in the transmission and rapid spread of COVID-19. In this course, we respond to the urgent need to develop context-specific and user-friendly guidance for the design of public toilets that pose minimal risk for those who use and maintain them.

Students were introduced to the wider subject of infrastructure and why it matters for public health. The focus was on the formal and informal, service-based and physically networked manifestations of sanitation around the globe. Students engaged with the history and purpose of universal standards. They were asked to reflect on their positionality as a researcher (and architect) and how the decolonial perspective may help to act and intervene through architectural practice. Methods of relevance studied in this course included systematic literature review and autoethnography, grounded theory’s constant comparative analysis and more conventional methods of qualitative data analysis.

Students learned to:

• demonstrate adequate knowledge of histories and theories in architecture and the social sciences
• demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between people and the built and natural environment across a range of spatial scales
• demonstrate an understanding of the profession of architecture and their role as architects in society
• apply skills of critical analysis to real world situations within a defined range of contexts
• express ideas effectively and communicate information appropriately and accurately using a range of media
• develop working relationships using teamwork and leadership skills, recognising and respecting different perspectives
• find, evaluate, synthesise and use information from a variety of sources
• articulate an awareness of the social and community contexts of operation
• engage with stakeholder and interdisciplinary perspectives

Course outputs form the basis for a compendium on ‘best practice’ in public toilet design to address COVID-19 around the world.