A integração da concepção estrutural no processo de ensino e aprendizagem do projeto de arquitetura

Abstract

The insertion of structural design in the studio is one of the topics in the discussion of the Architecture and Urbanism education, because of the direct influence in its form and function. Historically, the architect’s distancing of the field of technology and construction added to a teaching focused on individual work and the final product, and far from the process, brought repercussions in the practice of this type of instruction until today. This separation of the other areas resulted in a departmentalization inside the course, and, consequently, expanded the content integration difficulty inside the studio. Furthermore, the engineering development culminated in a Structure education based on calculation and distant of practical and reflexive learning, proper of Project teaching, result in the student’s disinterest and obstacles to be overcome thinking about those modules in the under-graduation course. Thereby, some authors argue that for a better integration of the structural thinking in the studio, it is necessary the implementation of active learning exercises, among them, one of the most cited is the physical model production, in order to create opportunities for students understanding the relationship between architectonic and resistant form, which can contribute to their design process. In this perspective, the thesis study object is in the integrations and didactic of structural design within the studio of architecture in Brazilian higher education institutions. Accordingly, the main objective of this thesis is to understand and evaluate how the structural design is taught in two Architecture Project modules in two Brazilian universities. Having as hypothesis that exists some teaching strategies to improve and assist in this kind of integrated education. Thence, this is a research with a qualitative approach with observational procedures, with two modules analysis, and experimental procedures, with the workshops. Therefore, analytical scripts have been drawn up and they defined all the topics to be observed in each step: course plan analysis, direct observation, interviews with professors and students and student’s projects analysis. In total, were two cases analyzed, one at UFRN and the other at UNICAMP, which configured the first phase of the research. In both, we found sometimes certain impartiality of the student about the structural issues, and they required an intense encouragement to solve structure elements. On the other hand, we verified some positive aspects: both project professor’s concern and effort about the technological and structural subjects, besides the collaboration of a Structure visitant professor in the UNICAMP study. In the second phase of the investigation, we tested a method of learning by the fabrication of structural models in two workshops on the Week of Architecture of the institutions analyzed, and which follow the sequence of thinking-making-breaking. As results, similar to that already mentioned by other authors, a certain students' reluctance to participate in this kind of exercise, what was gradually changing after the beginning of the practical activity, we realized more interest and enthusiasm until the moment of the model’s load testing. In summary, it was perceived in the two research phases the need to improve the teaching of structural design in a way to change the student’s reticent posture about this subject and to amplify their insertion in the design process. From this point of view, the partnership and the collaboration between professors features an important solution, the same way as hands-on activities indicated a path to the approximation with the materiality inherent in architecture and enabled visualizing small samples of the structural possibilities, what can be positive in project studio context.