As architectural education evolves, integrating sustainability demands more than technological solutions; it requires an experiential understanding of physical and spatial design qualities. However, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in architecture has often been shaped by Global North-centric technical approaches, promoting one-size-fits-all solutions. A more holistic understanding, incorporating the cultural and environmental realities of the Global South, remains underexplored. This research investigates how sensory perception, informed by Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and phenomenology, can enhance architectural ESD by fostering contextually grounded design approaches.

The study investigates how discipline-specific, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary collaboration fosters criticality in architectural students, drawing on Barnett’s (2015) framework of critical reasoning, self-reflection, and action. It identifies a gap in understanding what role the different collaboration methods play in promoting criticality and not just promoting technically sound graduates, but socially just, critically aware graduates in the built environment. A comparative case study design was used to collect data across three architecture cohorts, each engaging with a different collaboration mode. Data were collected through student self-reflection narratives and analysed through a deductive process using Barnett’s framework.

Architectural education must evolve to equip students with the sustainability literacy and critical thinking needed to translate global goals into locally relevant design strategies. However, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) frameworks often originate in Global North contexts, overlooking Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and the specific learning needs of students in South Africa and the broader Global South. At the same time, current architectural cohorts seek digitally mediated, socially meaningful learning experiences that many studio pedagogies fail to provide.