Indigenous student housing: permanence, representativeness and the participatory project process

Abstract

This article presents the project process adopted for the design of indigenous student housing at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, and discusses its impact both on the formative process of architecture and urbanism students, regarding the experiences of indigenous students at the University. Aside from the relevance of that architecture as support for the permanence of students in public higher education, its importance as a symbol of shelter and respect for indigenous peoples at the university stands out. For this purpose, a participatory project was built that began with dialogues stages with indigenous students at the university and interactions with one of the ethnicities involved in its traditional territory (its village), for the definition of project guidelines and the needs’ program. Subsequently, for the proposal’s presentation and discussion, experiences were gathered in the proposed area for the project’s implementation and the physical models and drawings were presented, which were used to facilitate dialogue and participation of Indigenous students in the project process. The article presents the path followed, the spatial results of this process, the perceptions of the future users of the space, and reflections on the importance of outreach actions in the training of professionals in the area of architecture and urbanism, valuing the social role of the profession, and building a more sensitive projective repertoire, prepared to consider the human diversity that contemporaneity constitutes.