Abordando la sustentabilidad. La construcción del prototipo como herramienta proyectual docente

Using the physical construction of a prototype as an educational tool is not new, although it can be innovative in the current context of conceptual renewal linked to sustainable development. At the School of Architecture of Seville, there is a great research tradition on sustainability, but little is extrapolated into teaching. There is also a need for a significant improvement in education from the methodological point of view. In this sense, competitions provide an opportunity that defines a potentially rewarding situation for educational innovation. From this starting point, this research aims at verifying how the construction of a full-scale prototype, as an active educational methodological strategy and following a bioclimatic design methodology consolidated in said School of Architecture, allows achieving great results both in educational and bioclimatic terms. The educational methodology brings together the following guidelines: the workshop as an integrating environment for architectural learning; the construction of a prototype as an educational situation that transcends the architectural; the conceptualization of new challenges marked by sustainability and their practical and effective application to the architectural project, design, and architectural construction. All the tools are valuable and effectively respond to shortcomings detected and internalized in teaching-learning, and, consequently, architectural activities.