Experimental workspaces in Brazil’s public schools of Architecture: reality or utopia?

Abstract

This paper delves in the debate on the use of experimentation in building along the design of the project and its role as pedagogical resource. It approaches, more specifically, the experimental workspaces and practices in the Brazilian academic context. It aims to understand the process used to shape the workspaces related to the fields of technology and construction set in public schools of Architecture and Urbanism, according to the singularities resulting from different contexts in Brazil, educational policies and  actions of parties, identifying the essential conditions for those practices to be implemented and strengthened in the academic context. This work has been carried with basis on documentary research and technical visits in 21 public schools of architecture from different regions of the country, counting on interviews with main actors currently in charge of the studied field. Data obtained enable a contextualization of challenges in teaching Technology of Construction, which are not limited to the physical arrangement of the laboratory, but embrace a broader dimension, touching  educational, political, structural and socioeconomical aspects, as well as background issues such as interpersonal and bureaucratic relations.