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Discussing cybernetics as an enacted practice within specific contexts, this paper aims to identify key similarities and differences of two cybernetically informed approaches to tertiary education in the distinct contexts of China and South Africa.

Making explicit and comparing two cybernetically informed educational approaches, the authors identify shared aspects as well as differences arising from their practice in social contexts that have differing norms and values.

The authors find that conversational settings for learning, immediacy of feedback, the key role of the teacher and assessment strategies that are matched to cybernetic learning and teaching strategies all constitute shared vital aspects of cybernetically informed teaching that are valid across two distinct educational contexts. Enacting these key aspects however requires careful adaptation to local contexts.

Primarily qualitative in nature, this study is limited to the examination of two bodies of work conducted independently of each other in differing contexts.

Arising from the long-term examination of applied educational practice, findings discussed in the paper are intended to inform similar practice in other contexts. The authors however emphasise that enacted ethical practice requires careful adapting of learning and teaching strategies to local conditions.

Based on the authors’ findings, the authors demonstrate the value of cybernetically informed tertiary education that emphasises ethical settings for learning on the basis of mutuality, equality and social inclusion.

Based on two bodies of work that consolidated practice-based insights independently of each other, this paper presents insights on cybernetically informed education that, shown to work well in two very different contexts, may offer a broader applicability.

This paper offers design cybernetics as a theoretical common ground to bridge diverging approaches to design as they frequently occur in collaborative design projects. Focusing on the education of architects and structural engineers in China, the paper examines how compatible approaches to design can be established in both disciplines.

The paper analyses relevant literature as well as observations from Chinese practice and academia. Design cybernetics is introduced and examined as a basis for establishing shared narratives to support cross-disciplinary collaborations involving architects and structural engineers.

Design cybernetics offers a body of vocabulary and a rich resource of strategies to address applied designing across design-oriented disciplines such as architecture and science-based disciplines such as structural engineering. The meta perspective of design cybernetics also provides a basis for the implementation of pedagogy supporting cross-disciplinary collaboration in applied design.

The scope of the paper is limited to the examination of the theoretical framing as well as the implementation of pedagogy in the cultural and geographical context of China.

The paper outlines several design cybernetic strategies for pedagogy in support of cross-disciplinary collaborative design processes and illustrates their implementation in applied design education.

Addressing a significant and persistent gap between the two disciplines of architecture and structural engineering in the context of Chinese building practice, this paper examines the particularities of this context and presents an educational approach to support cross-disciplinary collaboration that has value in and beyond the context of China.

Constrained by requirements of efficiency and economy as well as tight building regulations, Hong Kong's high-density residential architecture is very different from architectural approaches that are typically taught in the architectural studio. This paper reports on a second year architectural studio project taught at The University of Hong Kong that uses the Open Building paradigm to integrate the constraints of a high-density environment, community considerations and building technology in the context of a mixed use programme to be constructed on small individual lots.

Following a series of short introductory exercises, the main studio assignment required groups of students to negotiate the design of individual projects and community areas within a given generic structural frame. Based on their individual design ideas and architectural programme, students developed a structural solution following a kit-of-parts approach. We describe the tasks and rule sets given as the studio framework and discuss students' response to this new type of architectural programme. Based on our experiences, we critically review initial studio settings, final outcomes and observations made during the teaching and learning process with regard to future implementations of similar open building studio projects.

The purpose of this paper is to identify two ways of conceptualizing cellular automata (CA) systems: a utility-focussed approach focussed on modeling, simulation and prediction as typically found in science-based disciplines, and a second, exploration and speculation-focussed approach typically found in design-related contexts. These two approaches to CA are linked to first-order cybernetics and second-order cybernetics, respectively.

The author illustrate and support the argument made by showing in a review of earlier work as well as three case studies of CA use in architectural design work how linear, science-based “first-order CA” cannot adequately support design processes. In such contexts, CA are typically adapted to allow for circular, conversational processes and to take involved observers into account.

The analysis of the three case studies shows that design-oriented approaches to CA aimed at generating novelty require “second-order CA” – CA that are based on second-order cybernetic principles.

Limitations of this paper arise from the limited number of reported and analyzed case studies as well as from a necessary simplification and generalization of observations for the sake of brevity.

Findings resulting from the investigation emphasize and extend early experimental approaches to CA in design-related contexts that conceived CA systems as part of conversational design processes. The transition from first-order to second-order CA is necessary to allow for speculative and explorative design conversations that support designers in generating novelty in conversational settings.

This paper aims to examine how poetry and prose relate to each other in the context of architectural design education. While the two notions tend to be presented as distinct opposites, this paper shows how design processes are made possible by designers moving dynamically between poetic and prosaic viewpoints.

The paper illustrates and supports the argument made in the paper through a series of images taken from an educational case study. The case study further shows how perceptions of poetry and prose can vary between different cultural backgrounds.

Building on the case study, the paper shows how architectural design education teaches students to establish links between poetic and prosaic realms in a dynamic and flexible manner. The discussion further provides a basis for understanding how perceptions of the prosaic and poetic can be understood as choices made by observers.

Limitations of this paper arise from the specificity of the reported case study and its reliance on the personal experience of the author as a teacher of architectural design primarily at universities within the greater China area.

This paper shows how the learning to move between perceptions of poetic and prosaic is employed in architectural designing and taught in architectural education. In discussing designers' moving between perceptions of poetic and prosaic, the paper relates epistemologies of cybernetics, design, traditional Chinese thought and radical constructivism.

This paper connects the notions of abstract and actual based on a reflection of the Chinese notions of xiangsheng (mutual arising) and xushi (abstract/actual, empty/full). These word pairs enable a conception of abstract and actual that shows an alternative to, and which complements, distinctions of the terms that are based in dualism and rationalism.

The author sidesteps methodological rigour as practiced in the West as the style of thought introduced here shows a picture of abstract and actual arising from mutual interdependence rather than attempting to describe and formally distinguish abstract and actual through an observer‐independent methodology.

Discussing the relationship of actual and abstract from the viewpoint of the Chinese cultural tradition, this paper shows how abstract and actual may be thought of as a mutually generating, dynamic and polar relationship. The discussion further provides a basis for understanding how perceptions of abstract and actual can be understood as choices made by observers.

This research is based on the limited personal experience of the author as a teacher of architectural design at one Taiwanese and one Chinese university.

This paper reflects on the relationship of abstract and actual from a non‐dualist viewpoint by introducing traditional Chinese ways of seeing and appreciating, and connecting this perspective to cybernetic and radical constructivist epistemologies. To show the relationship between abstract and actual as polar and mutually arising, the paper focuses particularly on making and experiencing in and through creative processes.