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Pedagogical anarchitectures: critical practices and territorial contestations in the Spatial Academy of Santiago de Chile

Francisco Vergara‐Perucich & Camillo Boano

Community Development Journal2025https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsaf029article
ABDC B
Weight
0.50

Abstract

This paper learns from the Spatial Academy at Universidad de Las Américas in Santiago de Chile, reflecting on it as a model of radical pedagogy that challenges traditional architectural training within contexts of neoliberal inequality. Through the use of interviews with teaching staff and documentary analysis, it identifies its practice as a pedagogical anarchitecture, going back to Gordon Matta-Clark’s nomenclature, an approach that dismantles individual authorship, technical solutionism, and disciplinary authority. Its core is the design-build project, wherein students and communities co-design ephemeral interventions that prioritize relational processes over physical products, thereby activating collective memory and territorial conflicts. This pedagogy operates through four shifts: (i) from individual authorship to collective production; (ii) from the object to the process; (iii) from technical solutions to conflict as a driving force; and (iv) from rigid curricula to critical action. This experience offers a replicable framework for the Global South by training architects as socio-spatial mediators capable of contesting urban injustices through situated and collaborative practices.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsaf029

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@article{francisco2025,
  title        = {{Pedagogical anarchitectures: critical practices and territorial contestations in the Spatial Academy of Santiago de Chile}},
  author       = {Francisco Vergara‐Perucich & Camillo Boano},
  journal      = {Community Development Journal},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsaf029},
}

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Pedagogical anarchitectures: critical practices and territorial contestations in the Spatial Academy of Santiago de Chile

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

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