Mesa, F: Design Build Studios in Latin America

This publication documents the work carried out by fourteen Design-Build Studios in Latin America over the past twenty years, compiling a total of thirty-nine projects that place an emphasis on teaching with a social agenda and the impact that the construction experience has on students and communities. In contrast to architecture teaching around the world that places the emphasis on individual work, competition, and representation, these studios stimulate collaborative work and produce small-format buildings with flexible programs that have an immediate impact on their context. While global architecture often feels remote from people, the courses that take this approach manage resources sustainably and build projects with a high intensity of use. In the context of the most unequal region on the planet, this kind of studio enables students to interact positively in response to social, environmental, and architectural constraints. Design-Build Studios in Latin America asks questions about what matters in the present-day training and practice of architecture if we want our discipline to play a leading role in the ecological and social challenges of our time.