City under extension

architecture, city and heritage in São Paulo

Abstract

The university extension course Urban paths: architecture, city and heritage education in São Paulo reconstructs the history of the city of São Paulo by articulating three intrinsic dimensions to the urban space: as artifact, as force field, and as representation. The proposal is to reflect on how distinct logics have been acting in São Paulo through different agents, seeking to identify the stratum of time and the spatial scales that have constituted it. In this way, the course focuses on the fields of architecture and urbanism, but resorts to other disciplines such as social science, literature, photography, cinema, visual arts, as well as listening to the speeches of its inhabitants in general. Its intention is to denaturalize recurring representations of this modern metropolis to contribute to the training of more active citizens in the political and symbolic disputes that permeate the construction of the city and its history, therefore, more capable of enacting in favor of its development and preservation. For this reason, its target audience is teachers of the public education network and technicians of public services related to culture and education.