Research as practice: think tanks and architecture and urbanism projects for the multiple south.

Author(s)

Lívia Paula Zanelli de Morais

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU/SBI)
• Defense date: 2020-10-29

Examining board members

Leandro Silva Medrano; Monica Junqueira de Camargo; Ruy Sardinha Lopes; Elane Ribeiro Peixoto; Rita de Cássia Lucena Velloso

• Advisor: Leandro Silva Medrano

Abstract

The absence of a critical position in architecture and urbanism, in addition to its internal demands, is an issue that has permeated the discipline since the mid-1970s, as a consequence of the so-called \"postmodern condition\". Considering this context of pragmatism and theoretical emptying, the thesis has as its central hypothesis the possibility of resuming criticism and theoretical advances in the discipline from a scenario of institutionalization of research via think tanks and associations between universities and architecture and urbanism firms. Therefore, investigates the production of think tanks for urban agglomerations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, having as object of study the research and experimental projects of The Now Institute (Morphosis by Thom Mayne and the Southern California Institute of Architecture), Urban-Think Tank (Alfredo Brillembourg and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), The Why Factory (MVRDV by Winy Maas and the Delft University of Technology) and AMO (OMA/Rem Koolhaas and Harvard Graduate School of Design). Methodologically, we approach geography and urban theory as a criterion for analyzing case studies. This approach, via related disciplines, placing architecture and urbanism within a general knowledge structure, is important for understanding the internal state of our area. In this way, the thesis presented is that critical initiatives emerge against the hegemonic neoliberal scenario, but still mostly closed in the discipline itself and that should complement each other with actions that permeate other fields of knowledge. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/22499-5 - Architecture and experimentation: dialogues between research and typology
• Grantee: Lívia Paula Zanelli de Morais
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate