Social Design Practices: From the Popular Neighborhoods to the Faculty of Design
The lecture explores Auge FADU’s student-led social design practices that bridge design education with the socio-political reality of popular neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Social design practices, developed by a student movement Auge FADU, serve as a tool to address design through a lens encompassing social, territorial, participatory, feminist, inclusive, and transdisciplinary perspectives in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan area of Argentina. Since 2021, each semester, Auge FADU has engaged in diverse pedagogical activities with students, graduates, and faculty from the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism at the University of Buenos Aires. In this lecture, the activists will discuss how these practices connect design education with the socio-political reality of the country through a transdisciplinary approach.
Highlighting projects developed over the years through participatory processes, they will explore the impact of involving diverse stakeholders in the very neighborhoods where these initiatives originate. This approach not only deepens students’ connections with local communities, but also breaks down existing prejudices against residents of popular neighborhoods. It simultaneously cultivates exchanges and collaborations between the community and design students.
This lecture will be conducted in Spanish with simultaneous interpretation provided.
The event will be co-moderated with Abigail Schreider (she/her), a service designer bringing discussions around issues such as care, diversity, inclusion, and collectively organizing the workplace.
Auge FADU is a student political movement, currently a minority on the Board of Directors of the Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since 2021, Auge FADU has been collaborating with activists in the local neighborhoods to organize and facilitate Social Design Workshops. Auge FADU is affiliated with the Social Movement Somos Barrios de Pie, advocating for a feminist, inclusive, and sustainable university.
Giuliana Córdoba (she/none)is a Buenos Aires-based architect, activist, and educator. A graduate of the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism, University of Buenos Aires with a postgraduate degree in Social Project, she has been an economic evaluator at Argentina’s Ministry of Public Works since 2020. Giuliana is also a teacher, and is actively involved in gender training under the Micaela Law. As an activist in AUGE FADU since 2021, she works together with the social movement Somos Barrios de Pie. Additionally, Giuliana is part of the Papel Mulher collective from Brazil, amplifying women and dissidents’ voices through guerilla street posters.
Emilia Odriozola (she/her)is a Buenos Aires-based architect who graduated from the National University of Mar del Plata, Argentina. She is currently engaged in coordinating and directing various urban and architectural projects for socio-urban integration within different construction cooperatives. Since 2020, Emilia has been an activist in the student front AUGE FADU, and she is associated with the social movement Somos Barrios de Pie.
This lecture was part of Design Educators* Unite!—a lecture series for design teachers, researchers, and students that shares feminist practices from within.
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