SOCIAL IMPACT OF COMMUNITY PROJECTS IN MEDITERRANEAN SCHOOLS OF ARCHITECTURE

Abstract

Star system architect concept was promoted from media and the society during the last decades. Image culture helped to it, where the most “iconic” works and designs were continuously published. So many Universities saw how the number of students of Architecture was growing up and new Schools of Architecture arose.  Recent economic crises in Europe and other countries helped to go back to an important question: which is the role of the architect within the society? It was an excellent opportunity to understand the Architectural education as the reflection of the society from a territorial and urban point of view. Community projects developed within the Architecture curricula helped to get a comprehensive high education levels, especially in the final years of the program.

Transformative pedagogies applied to urban planning and architectural design courses bring up the social role of the architect to the students. Practical exercises are proposed, where the final result is even positive for an eventual  social extrapolation.

The paper presents us community projects experiences related to urban design in two different Mediterranean schools of Architecture, one of them in Italy and the last two ones  in Lebanon.

In the first case the students were invited to reflect on improving the quality of life of the citizenship and the tourists visiting Liguria region in Italy. Proposals for joining efforts among the several municipalities and developing new territorial models are done. The second case study shows us two initiatives for the students, developing proposals for UNHABITAT program and municipalities in southern Lebanon and a proposal for regenerating river lines in Byblos, within the 100 resilient cities program powered by Rockefeller Foundation.

Finally, the paper presents the new project is being developed currently by American University of Cyprus, about Arabahmet and Karamanzade sectors in Nicosia.