Jetarkte Crossing:
traveling, building, learning

In January 2020 I took part of a trip among professors and students from the
Escuela de Arquitectura y Diseño (e.[ad]) of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile. The group of about 20 people went to Puerto Edén, a village of approximately 80 inhabitants located in the flooded area of Chilean Patagonia. We spent 15 days building a shelter for researchers that will be part of a future ethnic-scientific complex, a project developed through a partnership between the university and the local indigenous community. This trip was placed in the context of Travesías (Crossings, in English) as the pedagogical trips of e.[ad] are called. The activity dates back to an epic journey made in the 1960s by the founders of the school, a group of architects, artists, writers and poets who crossed from south to north the interior of South America, performing poetic actions in the visited communities. Incorporated into the school’s pedagogical plan from the 1980’s on, the Travesías are currently linked to design studios and are held annually to different parts of the continent. Its purpose is to offer a poetic gesture to the communities that host the groups – an action, a sculpture, a building or even a boat. However, beyond this target, the process is also an important part of the activity: travel planning, displacement and exchange with the community are understood as key-learning components.

From this experience I have written a monography for Architecture, Education and Society, a Lato Sensu post-graduation course offered by Escola da Cidade (São Paulo), which I completed in 2021. The work offers a presentation of the
pedagogical proposal of e.[ad] and an report of the trip, followed by a critical
reading. Among my goals was to offer documentation and thoughts about
experimental pedagogies in architecture education, especially those that are
connected to the arts field.

To download the monography, click here (available only in portuguese)

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