Archieducation— Ana Neto Vieira and Matilde Seabra
Presentation Proposal
Art education is a methodology widely used in contemporary teaching and learning, we appropriate this pedagogic term and readapt it to the act of designing in Architecture. We have been implementing “Archieducation” for more than ten years and we want to discuss its relevance at this International Conference on RETHINKING MUSEUM THEORY AND PRACTICES.
Many teachers and students acknowledge the importance of visiting Art Museums, attending guided visits and taking part in workshops as a complement to the schools’ curriculum. The emergence of more and more Museums, Institutions and Congresses dedicated to Architecture and Heritage raises new educational challenges in mediating these new domains with different publics.
Talkie-Walkie, founded by two architects, is an independent collective that brings together a team of educators from different areas of knowledge and artistic practices. With this multidisciplinary team it has been conceiving and conducting a set of educational short actions and long-term programs. Its aim is to promote debate and raise awareness amongst its participants regarding their territories and the places where they live and act. Together with teachers and students, Talkie- Walkie is transforming the classroom and trying to develop a research platform investigating the expanded field of architecture, bridging the gap between Community, School and Cultural Institutions.
Certain fundaments of Architecture are always present in our lives, even if unconsciously: it is in the child's imagination to build shelters; it is in the adolescent's desires to explore the world. Our work consists in structuring these innate will of transforming, building, and interacting with the landscape and with the community. Our research and practices lie in the fringe between the House and the School, but it is anchored to both of these two places. To better understand and interpret them, thus far, we have tested different forms of representing such as illustration, tracing mind-maps or affective cartographies, travel journals and gleaning.
Every classroom matters! A well designed child-centered educational environment will affect the learning processes in a positive way. Our efforts go beyond the existing spatial reality, sometimes implementing simple actions to tackle teachers inertia, to increase actions in space to promote new appropriations and transformation of the classroom usage. The shaping of one’s learning environment is a formative action in its own right.
As Architecture is a discipline that articulates other forms of knowledge, Archieducation also has to act in a multidisciplinary fashion, adapting to the specificities of each reality where it acts - an educational project conceived for the landscape of the Douro must be different to one for the Fernando Távora designed “Escola do Cedro”.
Archieducation is a process of teaching and learning how to relate to architectural spaces and forms created by others and how to appropriate them differently every day. We trust this to be a form of inspiring and empowering children and youngsters in creative and innovative ways to think the place where they live.
Bouça Housing Complex, December 2018
Talkie-Walkie - Ana and Matilde