— CONSTRUCTION 2.0

This work is the result of a practical exercise developed in the course unit Construction 2, with students from the 3rd year of the Integrated Master of Architecture (MIA) of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Oporto.

It presents all the work done during the second exercise, with an exploratory and experimental character, and seeks to portray, without filters and without any kind of selection, the processes and results achieved by all the groups that were dedicated to this project.

The exercise is part of a more comprehensive global programme and is developed in conjunction with other curricular units. It is oriented towards the acquisition of skills in the field of construction technologies and, above all, the acquisition of skills in analysis, design and problem solving based on the properties of materials and aspects relating to the understanding of building physics.

It is, however, a specific work oriented towards the production of a model, on a scale considered convenient, capable of analysing, interpreting and communicating a process or construction system of an architectural work, at the students’ choice.

The process of building the “model”, the objectives and results obtained, as well as the associated pedagogical process, encourage experimentation, debate, execution, and develop in a proper time and record.

Here we try to recover and update certain practices – close to the old ways of designing and doing architecture, which here are (re)invented, (re)produced, and (re)oriented towards the construction sciences – leading the students to think with knowledge and creativity, to solve problems, making decisions, and collaborating as a project group. In the end, they reproduce the true essence of architecture as collective art directed towards Construction.