Tectonics in the Periphery: Alternatives for Design Teaching

Abstract

This paper addresses the pedagogical experience of the “Ateliê Aberto” at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (FAU-UFRJ) in recent years, which has been debating and building possibilities for an alternative design teaching to the hegemonic approaches of a colonial-modern matrix with a strong European reference, in the sense of repositioning the role of the architect, aiming at greater infiltration in contemporary urban territories. The Ateliê Aberto seeks to answer two issues identified as recurring problems in architectural design teaching: on the one hand, the devaluation of drawing and constructive thinking, understood as fundamental tools for contributing to society, and, on the other hand, the distancing from urban social reality and of its inhabitants in all its extension and complexity. The approach that has been tried at Ateliê Aberto for the architecture design studio is presented, as well as the repertoire used for an approach based on tectonics for the Brazilian peripheries. Recent Latin American architectural production is valued for bringing together examples capable of, from a small scale, to promote qualitative transformations in the spaces of everyday life and for the strong approximation between thought and construction. In this way, we seek to equip future architects for the expansion and revision of the professional field through the possibility of transforming territories from architecture.