Beginnings of an Alternative Pedagogical Project. Conversations on Situated Methods and Institutional Critique to Rethink Design Education

This chapter summarizes the first roundtable conversation between the contributors and editors of this book, convened at Politecnico di Torino at the beginning of the process of production. Critical points that arose during the conversations included: a collective response to the publisher's initial peer review; the need (and the risks) of integrating new technologies into architectural education; how a ‘situated’ and hybrid approach (analogue techniques as well as digital, improvisation and responsiveness to conditions on the ground, and engaging multiple fields of knowledge) is at the core of anti-disciplinarity pedagogy; and finally how institutional realities can constrain or trigger anti-disciplinarity. The roundtable attempted to recognize and develop the methods and the topics of the book without insisting on particular criteria. Contributors and editors realized that the discursive approach of the roundtable itself would help the book to practice what it preaches in terms of anti-disciplinarity.