Co-laborations, Entrapments, Intraventions: Pedagogical Approaches to Technical Democracy in Architectural Design

Main Article Content

Ignacio Farías
Tomás Sánchez Criado

Abstract

A review of a series of pedagogical experiments in our work as science and technology studies (STS) scholars in a Department of Architecture is presented. Our exploration had a central conceptual concern: exploring the meaning and prospects of one of STS’s central aspirations, ‘technical democracy’, for the education of the future design professionals. Hence, after briefly summarizing the conceptual history of the term, we will then pay specific attention to a series of studio design projects at an MA level. We show our transition from an initially ‘predicative’ pedagogical mode – where the main works on technical democracy were read and explained, hoping this to have an impact on our students’ architectural practice – to a series of more ‘experiential’ ones, where the challenge of technical democracy was repurposed in three ways: as (1) co-laboration, (2) entrapment, and (3) intravention.

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How to Cite
Farías, I., & Sánchez Criado, T. (2018). Co-laborations, Entrapments, Intraventions: Pedagogical Approaches to Technical Democracy in Architectural Design. Diseña, (12), 228–255. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.12.228-255
Section
Original Articles (part 1)
Author Biographies

Ignacio Farías, Technical University of Munich

B.A. in Sociology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. D.E.A. in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Universidad de Barcelona. PhD in European Ethnology, Humboldt University. Assistant Professor at the Munich Center for Technology in Society and the Architecture Department of Technical University Munich. His work is centered on urban studies, studies on science and technology and cultural anthropology. He has recently co-edited, together with Alex Wilkie, Studio Studies. Operations, Topologies & Displacements (Routledge, 2015) and, together with Anders Blok, the special issue “Technical Democracy as a Challenge to Urban Studies” (CITY, vol. 20, N° 4), and Urban Cosmopolitics: Agencements, Assemblies, Atmospheres (Routledge, 2016).

Tomás Sánchez Criado, Technical University of Munich

B.A. in Psychology, D.E.A. and PhD in Social Anthropology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Senior Researcher at the Munich Center for Technology in Society and the Architecture Department of the Technical University Munich. His areas of interest include social anthropology, science and technology studies, and disability studies. Some of his more recent publications are: Experimental Collaborations: Ethnography Through Fieldwork Devices (co-edited with A. Estalella, Berghahn, 2018) and ‘Urban Accessibility Issues: Technoscientific Democratizations at the Documentation Interface’ (with M. Cereceda, CITY, vol. 20, n.° 4).