Towards a Radical Pedagogy
Lecture by Beatriz Colomina and opening of "Radical Pedagogies'" exhibition

  • Towards a Radical Pedagogy

    "Poetic Act for the ‘Opening' of the site, Open City, Ritoque, Chile, 1971.” Courtesy of Archivo Histórico Jose Vial, Escuela Arquitectura y Diseño, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaiso

The "Radical Pedagogies" project explores a series of intense but short-lived experiments in architectural education that profoundly transformed the landscape, methods and politics of the discipline in the post-WWII years. These experiments can be understood as radical architectural practices in their own right. 

Radical pedagogies shake foundations, disturbing assumptions rather than reinforcing and disseminating them. This challenge to normative thinking was a major force in the post-war field of architecture, and has surprisingly been neglected in contemporary thinking.

For the occasion of the exhibition of "Radical Pedagogies. Reconstructing Architectural Education" in Warsaw, as part of celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Faculty of Architecture, a whole new layer of research have been developed, opening up new directions and a new density of global interconnections. East Europe, Africa, South East Asia and Oceania become the protagonists, opening new insights into pedagogical experimentation in the postwar years. The full counter-hegemonic force of radical pedagogy can be seen as people and ideas cross continents and political systems. The empire of classical design education convulses and cracks as every assumption is challenged.

The lecture will be followed by the opening of the exhibition “Radical Pedagogies. Reconstructing Architectural Education” in the Exhibition Pavilion at the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology.

Beatriz Colomina is an architectural historian and theorist who has written extensively on questions of architecture and media and whose work has been published in over 25 languages. She is Professor of Architecture and Founding Director of the interdisciplinary Program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University. Her books include "Manifesto Architecture: The Ghost of Mies" (2014), "Clip/Stamp/Fold: The Radical Architecture of Little Magazines 196X-197X" (2010), "Domesticity at War" (2007), "Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media" (1994) and "Sexuality and Space" (1992). Beatriz Colomina will co-curate with Mark Wigley the 2016 Istanbul Design Biennial.

See also:

Other archival events from that cycle:

DzieńGodzinaNazwa wydarzeniaMiejsce wydarzenia
20:00 Vernissage Exhibition opening „Radical Pedagogies: Reconstructing Architectural Education” Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology
ul. Koszykowa 55, Warsaw
18:00 Workshops How to work with ruins? Urban Ecology as the intervention toolWorkshop with Robert Ungar Former building of the 9th Klementyna Hoffmanowa High School
ul. Emilii Plater 29, Warsaw
17:00 Workshops Learning from the cityPart one – an appartment Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology
ul. Koszykowa 55, Warsaw
18:00 Debate Simple methods of deterring reprivatisationA tenants’ debate Former building of the 9th Klementyna Hoffmanowa High School
ul. Emilii Plater 29, Warsaw
18:00 Meeting Happy City. Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design.Meeting with Charles Montgomery moderated by Marta Żakowska Former building of the 9th Klementyna Hoffmanowa High School
ul. Emilii Plater 29, Warsaw
12:00 For children Open actionsWorkshops for kids during the “Reconstruction Disputes” exhibition Former building of the 9th Klementyna Hoffmanowa High School
ul. Emilii Plater 29, Warsaw
16:00 Guided tour Guided tour in EnglishThrough „Radical Pedagogies” exhibition Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology
ul. Koszykowa 55, Warsaw
17:00 Guided tour Guided tour with VarsoviansBeata Chomątowska guides through „Reconstruction Disputes” exhibition Former building of the 9th Klementyna Hoffmanowa High School
ul. Emilii Plater 29, Warsaw
14:00 Guided tour Curatorial guided tour Tomasz Fudala guides through „Reconstruction Disputes” exhibition Former building of the 9th Klementyna Hoffmanowa High School
ul. Emilii Plater 29, Warsaw