Urban laboratories: teaching practices and pedagogical proposals from a decolonial and ecofeminist perspective

Abstract

The objective of this article is to contribute to the debate on teaching practices in architecture and urbanism from a decolonial and ecofeminist perspective. It reflects on a university experience of urban laboratories conceived as theoretical and pedagogical spaces focused on gender and landscape approaches in the teaching of project disciplines. Methodologically, it contributes to research/action mechanisms from the interweaving of teaching and extension activities, with collaborative and networked devices to identify social perceptions and everyday practices of citizenship. It introduces a pedagogical strategy which seeks to pose alternatives in the teaching/learning process in the Architecture career with training structures anchored in the dissociation of the practice characterizing the workshop space and the theory addressed from encyclopedic perspectives in regular subjects. The laboratories promote a critical stance that questions the urban space conception, planning and design which are influenced by androcentric background and dominant sectoral practices. A multidimensional and cross-scale approach from a situated perspective regarding the diversity of subjects inhabiting cities as well as their lifestyles and aspirations is introduced.