Tectonic Learning Ecologies: Elements for a circular architecture pedagogy in the work of Fernando Távora: Extended Abstract

The increasingly pressing environmental challenges that govern us entails a necessary questioning of the role of architecture in a viable development of the built environment as a whole. Leading economic and environmental research points to the fact that an addressing of these challenges calls for holistic design approaches as expressed in the concept ‘circular economy’. Within architectural research, this concept has recently been associated with a tectonic practice that inscribes future architectural construction in a mutual and ecological cohesion with its past. Present paper continues this research effort by studying the implications and potentials hereof from the point of view of architectural education. This by proposing a link between the presence of tectonic thinking in architecture and the pedagogical challenge of sustaining architectural knowledge over time. The work of Fernando Távora, who conceived of the architect as a lifelong pupil and educator, serves as a case study investigating this link.