Living and Building in Nature. In search of an Ethical and Ecological Architectural Education in La Araucanía Region, Chile

To establish a new school of architecture today, in Araucanía (a region in Chile that embodies a global heritage for its conserved original nature and cultures), proposes the challenge of re-contextualizing the architectural practice and teaching. This article seeks to account for the particular process of re-contextualization, from the pedagogical experience in “Introduction to Architecture” of the Universidad Catolica de Temuco. The Experience was articulated around two questions: 1) How can we approach an architecture that is more sensitive to nature? 2) What can we learn from the vision that the local cultures have about man, space, and nature? To approach these questions, we have proposed an experiential methodology focused on promoting a multimodal and holistic education through living and working in nature, and a transcultural dialogue with the local cultures through building together. The method proposes the direct experience of the natural and spatial factors, from which, a sensitive and subtle measure of space emerges, materialized in physical signs on the site. In this way, students learn to design from awareness, appreciation, and care of the natural context. This article summarizes the field experiences of the class and its learning outcomes, according to the perspective of its participants. It proposes the possibility of a new approach for the Architecture-Nature relationship, and the search for new learning methodologies, which emphasizes the training of professionals with a deep ecological and ethical sensitivity, relevant to an ecologically and culturally sensitive Territory. This article seeks to be an invitation to a more ethical, humane, and sustainable education.