CAMPUS AULA: Educational Architecture in Latin America

Curated by Jeannette Plaut and Marcelo Sarovic, co-founders of the Santiago, Chile-based architectural platform, CONSTRUCTO, CAMPUS AULA: Educational Architecture in Latin America explores nine new higher education projects in Latin America. In the 20th century, Latin America was the site of several emblematic university projects with powerful social agendas. At this time, the Modernist paradigm conceived of the campus as a university town—an autonomous, contained site following a strict urban logic. Today, architects are once again redefining the educational experience in Latin America through designs that seek a more open, inclusive approach to learning. The transformation of the educational project can be explored in relation to two terms: “campus” and “aula,” or classroom, which represent two scales of intervention within the typology.

The nine projects in the exhibition, located in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru, rethink the traditional, Modernist conceptions of the campus and the classroom. At the territorial scale of the campus, these projects attempt to more fully integrate their institutions into the surrounding social and geographic context, whether by aligning the educational experience with contemporary urban conditions or establishing a dialogue with nature. While the campus roots the institution in place, today’s aula extends beyond its traditional confines, expanding its conceptual meaning to both formal and informal spaces of learning. The featured projects leverage interstitial spaces to create flexible, multi-programmatic spaces where new types of learning can occur. The projects will be presented via full-color photography, drawings and diagrams, and detailed models.

To further establish the connection between the contemporary projects and the Modernist legacy educational projects in Latin America, the nine projects will be presented in conjunction with an installation of 20 black-and-white photos of Modernist university projects by renowned Brazilian photographer Leonardo Finotti.

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