Critic Goes Home. Thought as a Tool in Architectural Education

Abstract

[Resumen] “Architectural Critique" is a subject of the Master's Degree in Architecture (MUA) at the School of Architecture of the University of A Coruña (ETSAC). Fernando Agrasar and Luz Paz Agras, the professors responsible for the course, orient its contents towards the development of critical judgment skills, with a clearly practical approach. The course has been taught since the academic year 2018-2019.In the 2020-21 academic year, the topics of the Final Year Project (TFM of the MUA) were various residential programmes in Santiago de Compostela. The main practice of the course focused on the elaboration of a critical essay on a contemporary housing programme built in Galicia.The different critical analyses were summarised and recorded to create a video in which a wide range of issues were condensed, including environmental, compositional, functional, social, economic, and technical aspects.This video was used as the basis for the debate, organised in a public session held at NORMAL (the University's cultural space and exhibition hall). The event was entitled: " Living today in Galicia: Critical Considerations". Fernanda Canales (CDMX) and Ricardo Carvalho (Lisbon) together with the professors of the subject composed the table in which questions about contemporary inhabiting were discussed, following the critical considerations included in the video of our students. After the round of interventions, a debate was opened among the participants.). This session, broadcast by streaming, condensed the contents of the course and fulfilled its academic objectives of offering students a reflective and critical position from which to develop their architectural project.