Radical Pedagogies: Action-Reaction-Interaction is one of 41 projects in the research-oriented section of Monditalia, exhibited in the Corderie dell’Arsenale in Venice. The 20-meter-long installation presents an multimedia global atlas of postwar experiments in architectural pedagogy, comprising more than sixty case studies by 48 international contributors. Rather than a collection of facts, the exhibition takes the form of an “open archive” that encourages debate regarding the history and future of architectural pedagogy. Conceived as an interactive platform, the project includes video animation (through Augmented Reality), take-away texts, original publications and documents, and an analytic timeline of changes in Italian architectural pedagogy.
The global atlas section of the installation presents the case studies arranged by longitude, mapping out a network of experiments, protagonists, ideas and student work. A close reading for each case study is provided by the series of take-away texts, each focusing on its moment of “radicality.” This moment is seen as the attempt to address fundamental change through architectural education as tool and medium.
Cartography wall as an open archive. Design by Amunátegui Valdés Architects.
Pedagogical experiments to take-away. Photo: Radical Pedagogies.
Cartography wall, Case Studies in take-away format. Photo: Radical Pedagogies
Focusing on the Italian context, the series of facsimiles and original books create an open archive for the postwar debate around education in Italy. Reprints of rare student journals, scripts of lectures and student readers as well as magazine articles and text books recreate the ambitious urgency of the period. Contextualized by the extensive timeline, those debates are placed in their larger cultural, political and social context.