Projeta-se habitação social: a abordagem do tema em cursos de arquitetura e urbanismo

Abstract

Social Housing is a broad and multidisciplinary theme that has its own specificities. It has been present in Brazilian reality since 1930s. Given its value to the country scenery, it is natural to find the topic in Architecture and Urbanism courses. With that knowledge, came the questions: How is Brazilian Architecture and Urbanism courses addressing Social Housing teaching? What factors were relevant to definition of the predominant approach? How do professors involved with social housing project field perceive this teaching? In this field, the hypothesis adopted was that, in the Brazilian Architecture and Urbanism courses, the introduction of the social housing issue is in most cases related to individual initiatives of the teachers. In other words, it is not derived from the curricular organization. Other hypothesis was that project approach given in graduation still privileges large housing estates. Starting from this stand, this research main goal was to characterize the current teaching of Social House design in Brazilian Architecture and Urbanism courses. Specific goals were: (1) to understand the relationship between professors who teach social housing project and the theme: their professional trajectories, profiles, points of view and opinions; (2) to verify main teaching strategies undertaken to answer to the subject specificities; (3) to identify ways of the theme approach in Brazilian Architecture and Urbanism Courses. The theory research is bases on a conceptual framework that involves debates about housing, habitability and social housing. The empirical survey used multi-method strategy, and data collection was performed through five independent studies: (1st) a documentary researching based on an online survey of the material available at the courses’ webpages, to comprehend how Brazilians courses approaches the Social Housing subject (study A); (2nd) In order to understand the professors’ perception about the teaching of social housing in Brazilian undergraduate courses, it was undertaken a collection of articles about the theme (study B), application of online questionnaires (study C) and conduction of interviews (study D); to contact institutions that stand out in the area, there were field visits and phone calls. The results were grouped into four general themes (institutional bias, teaching approaches and strategies, teachers and good practices) and, partially counteracting the hypothesis stated, shows that: (1) although not always explicit at pedagogical projects or curriculum framework, Social Housing subject is present in most researched courses, either inside disciplines or at research projects and extension programs; (2) oftentimes the option to work on the Social Housing topic is a professor’s personal initiative, even if its summary does not predefine Social Housing as its main subject; (3) large housing estates are not the main focus. And there is also an undergraduate course whose curricular proposal has social housing as foundation. It was verified that having gone through more technical, economical and pragmatic discussions in the 20th century, currently the academic debate on the field focus mainly on: urban and environmental impact of housing enterprises; Social Housing modes of design considering future users issues and necessities; intervention at urban preexisting areas (such as shantytowns or similar places); architectonical and building programs and types; technological advancements incorporation to building process. It is noticed also that the way this issue is treated reflect on the integration of Architecture and Urbanism disciplines and even involving other courses ones, as well as the participation/collaboration from outsiders such as market professionals, government agents and mainly members from the community. That gives the students the opportunity to interact with the social and urban reality. Therefore, by proposing to organize and gather information about different courses in different regions of the country, this research becomes relevant, considering its contribution to the increase of dialogue and encourages the exchange of experiences in this field.