Architecture and environmental crisis: an ethnography of architects' academic practice in dialogue with anthropology

• Grant number: 25/15235-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2026
• End date: April 30, 2029
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Jorge Luiz Mattar Villela
• Grantee: Naiane Marcon da Silva
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/07886-8 - Arts and semantics of creation and memory, AP.TEM

Abstract

The central aim of this research is to conduct an ethnography of the bibliographic and documentary production, as well as the research, teaching, and community outreach activities of architects who are professors and researchers at the Escola de Arquitetura and the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. I propose to investigate the processes through which knowledge is constituted, and the effects of architects' engagements with the field of anthropology and with traditional populations in addressing the environmental crisis. To this end, I adopt two methodological approaches: the ethnography of an archive composed of the architects' academic production, and participant observation of their research, teaching, and community outreach activities. The analytical framing of the research proposes an intersection between anthropology and architecture that highlights, within discussions on political ecology and scientific knowledge, the conceptual and material processes of environmental intervention and construction.