On the rubble of the destruction of the first and second World Wars, and under the banner of the defence of peace, multiple new political and economic alliances have arisen. On the other hand, the progressive decolonisation and independence of many countries has also contributed to new geopolitical strategies, technical processes, and labour transfers not only of the great power nations, but also of emerging economies. In this new scenario, international development cooperation aid from non-governmental organisations such as the UN, as well as governmental foreign affairs’ agencies, have acquired special relevance and power, crossing the paths of worldwide prominent actors, and boosting new channels and forms of expertise. Housing became central to debates on development, human rights and democracy, segregation, and inequality, shaping different aid structures and programmes in the Western World. Throughout the 1960’s, particularly through UNESCO development theories, technical cooperation had an increasingly emphasis on primary schooling. Higher education was also targeted, and although a large measure of it was in the form of scholarships, it also boosted the creation of new infrastructures linking development and education through innovative training courses and educational programs. This paper aims at investigating how this phenomenon promoted the building up of a new knowledge economy, as well as highly mobile flows of people and ideas. Specifically, it proposes to examine the historical contribution of Otto Koenigsberger (1908-99) and his disciples through a case study that links the concept of development through higher education and the built environment — the Housing Extensive Service as part of the Training Advisory Service (TAS) at the Department Planning Unit (DPU) from the University College of London (UCL). The research covers its conception relating it with Koenigsberger’s early consultancy projects in Burma, Ghana, and Pakistan; and with Cho Padamsee (1932-2009) proposal, during an Educational Workshop promoted by the Department of Development and Tropical Studies (DDTA), former Department of Tropical Architecture (DTA), at the Architectural Association (AA), for the establishment of mobile teams of teachers and sets of teaching materials — the “Traveling Circus”. The analysis of its later implementation in Africa and Asia in 1972 by Patrick Wakely (b.1939), Hartmut Schmetzer (1941-2004) and Mario Novella, joined later by Babar Muntaz (b.1946) will reveal a space of encounter of many geographies, professionals and practices with different disciplinary backgrounds (e.g. Polish consultancy firms), and private and governmental institutions (e.g. DANIDA). The hypothesis is that it promoted dialectic discussions and enabled theoretical bridges between apparently unrelated urban realities deviating from mainstream architectural culture, discourses, and agendas at the time, converging specifically across the Indian Ocean Rim.

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housing,mass training,housing extension service,training advisory service,Indian Ocean Rim,AA Department of Development and Tropical Studies,DPU,Otto Koenigsberger

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