Radical Pedagogies: Reconstructing Architectural Education
WARSAW UNDER CONSTRUCTION 7

Radical Pedagogies: Reconstructing Architectural Education

The exhibition “Radical Pedagogies: Reconstructing Architectural Education” presents an atlas 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. As challenge to normative thinking, they questioned, redefined, and reshaped the postwar field of architecture.

These experiments are radical in the literal meaning from the Latin radix (root), the basis or foundation of something. These new modes of teaching shook foundations and disturbed assumptions, rather than reinforce and disseminate them. They operated as small endeavors on the fringes of institutions but had long-lasting impact. Much of architectural teaching today still rests on the paradigms they introduced.

This is the third edition of “Radical Pedagogies” exhibition. Earlier versions of this show were presented at the 3rd Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2013) and the 14th Venice Biennale of Architecture, curated by Rem Koolhaas (2014), where it was awarded a Special Mention. For the occasion of its presentation in Warsaw, the exhibition opens up new directions and a new density of global interconnections. Eastern Europe, Africa, East Asia and Australasia become the protagonists, opening new insights into pedagogical experimentation after 1945.

“Radical Pedagogies” is an ongoing multi-year collaborative research project led by Beatriz Colomina with a team of Ph.D. students of the School of Architecture at Princeton University. It has so far involved three years of seminars, interviews, archival research, guest lectures and almost 80 contributors from more than two dozen countries. In this, and similar research projects conducted by the Ph.D. program at Princeton, architecture history and theory are taught and practiced as an experiment in and of themselves, exploring the potential for collaboration — in what is often taught to be a field of individual endeavor.

Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the Warsaw Faculty of Architecture, the installation in the exhibition pavilion of the school presents an “open archive” of 74 case studies that encourages debate regarding the history and future of architectural pedagogy. Conceived as an interactive platform, the exhibition incorporates take-away texts, facsimiles, original publications and teaching documents, archival films, and implements interactive features through augmented reality.

Curated by

Beatriz Colomina
Evangelos Kotsioris

Curatorial cooperation

Britt Eversole
Ignacio G. Galán
Anna-Maria Meister
Federica Vannucchi
and other PhD students of the School of Architecture at Princeton University

Curatorial cooperation on behalf of the festival

Aleksandra Kędziorek

Design

Cristóbal Amunátegui
Alejandro Valdés
of Amunátegui Valdés architects

Graphic design

Pablo González, Smog

Multiplatform publishing concept

Ethel Baraona
César Reyes
of dpr-barcelona 

Photo documentation:

See more images

See also:

Other archival events from that cycle:

DzieńGodzinaNazwa wydarzeniaMiejsce wydarzenia
18:00 Vernissage Towards a Radical PedagogyLecture by Beatriz Colomina and opening of „Radical Pedagogies'” exhibition Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology
ul. Koszykowa 55, Warsaw
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