The focus of this research is on architectural education and practice as a collective experience, examining the specific case of the PUCV School of Architecture and Design and Ciudad Abierta in Chile. The research asks whether the culture of collectivity that characterises the school has served as a supporting structure for its artistic and pedagogical project and if so, what elements configure the collective ways of studying and practising at this school. The research delves into these questions by following the trail of a concept that crystallises the school’s collective ethos: The Ronda. The notion of Ronda refers to a collective working format practised by the school members. However, this dissertation argues that this concept conveys a much more complex and profound sense of collectivity, related to a disposition to live, work, and study together. Accordingly, the main objective of this research is to trace and analyse the aspects that have nurtured the notion of Ronda, and from there, to identify how have they contributed towards shaping the collective approach to architectural education and practice conceived within the PUCV School of Architecture and Design and Ciudad Abierta. The first phase of the research involved a comprehensive review of the existing literature mapping the presence of the notion of Ronda and identifying the fundamental elements shaping the collective realm that characterises the school. The literature review allowed to distinguish nine communities that have articulated the school as objects of study, which circumscribed areas of inquiry and enabled to look upon the collective dimension of the school’s history from a variety of perspectives. The research strategy was to address the examination of these nine communities by engaging a triangulation of methods that included archival research, interviews, and participant observation. Each of these methods helped to complete the complex landscape of ideas and practices articulating the school’s collective realm that contributed towards nurturing the notion of Ronda and its educational project. The research concludes that the PUCV School of Architecture and Design sets the conditions for the formative experience by constructing a creative milieu in common, understood as a specific environment that is shaped by the school community. The conclusions set forth four perspectives to depict the school’s creative milieu in 10 Ronda common and assert findings concerning the Ronda, proposing it as the invention of a way of interacting through which the school members can give course to their fundamental proposals and understand the school as a collective project. This dissertation enriches the existing literature on the PUCV School of Architecture and Design and Ciudad Abierta by adding an examination of the fundamental notion of the Ronda, which was lacking until now. The research narrows the knowledge gap regarding the Ronda by locating its historical formulation, identifying the elements that converged in its ideation, presenting its characteristics and dynamics in the working process, and explaining the importance it has in the present for the school. The dissertation also participates in the broader debate on architectural education, providing insights on how architectural training can diversify its practices, spaces, and frameworks in new configurations by comprehending a school as an expanded network of communities beyond the academic realm and complementary to university institutions. @en

This article addresses the case of the School of Architecture and Design at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso in Chile, which established an original position in arts and education by exploring the productive relationship between poetry and architecture. The focus of this article is to examine the pivotal presence of poetry in
the school’s artistic position and its role in the design and building actions carried out by students and professors, which are an essential trait of its educational approach. The article displays this trajectory from the poetic word to the act of building by discussing a crucial topic raised within inter-nal debates of the School of Valparaíso: the relationship between word and action. While illustrating the role of poetry in the school’s creative practices, the article argues that the poetic word is not instrumentalized as a concrete method or tool in design studio practices, but is present as an underlying element that opens a primordial creative field from which architecture operates. The article aims to contribute to the existing literature by clarifying the role of poetry in the School of Valparaíso’s curriculum, which is a particu- larly unclear aspect surrounded by myths and assumptions. Therefore, this article focuses on the formulation and practice of the ‘poetic act’, its role
in the design and building processes of the school projects, and the way in which the professors and students of the School of Valparaíso proceed with their works after the poetic act that takes place at the start of every project. By clarifying these points, we shine a light on the presence of poetry in the articulation of the school’s artistic production and academic structures, locating the relationship between word and action at the centre of the school’s debates, where it remains open and vividly discussed to this day.@en

Re-founded in 1952 by a group of architects, artists and poets; the School of Valparaíso represents one of the most long-lasting and original experimental artistic experiences in the Latin American context. The article comments on a fundamental aspect of the School approach: the lived structure of Acts that organizes and gives shape to its creative experience and learning ambit—a continuous rhythm of Acts, structuring the spheres of life, work and study. The authors propose that one of the particular dimensions constructed by this practice is to summon and situate the work at the centre of the School quests. The article develops the idea that it is exactly through the work that the School seems to fulfil its role, transforming ourselves into the crafts.@en