In a time of social distancing, Space Saloon’s annual community-in-residence program was adapted for an online audience. Together with a diverse team of student participants, workshops leaders and experts, the program set out to develop collaborative Do-It-Yourself projects by developing a growing digital toolkit. The initiative aimed to explore alternative forms of pedagogical engagement as both participants and tutors collectively learned a range of new interdisciplinary skills based on existing, easily-accessible online resources.

Through this process Space Saloon hands-on methodology evolved to embrace virtual engagement, at the same time forming a critical lens on outdated pedagogical formats, challenging the usual formalities and hierarchies of the teaching space. As a result of this experiment, the collective discovered new and unexpected values in connecting and growing international networks. If on one hand, the virtual format posed great challenges in creating a communal atmosphere of exchange - on the other it made the workshops more easily accessible to a larger audience of both participants and workshop leaders, sparking future international collaborations and uncovering the potential of virtual space for expanding design education to peripheral users, who would normally be excluded from it.