Cordées de la réussite Álvaro Siza
2023-2024

How does architecture resonate in unexpected ways with different artistic and cultural areas of our daily lives? The project is based on architectural and cultural visits accompanied by hands-on workshops to understand and analyze the interactions between architecture and fashion, design, literature, music, graphics...
music, graphic design...
The pedagogical objective is to encourage participants' curiosity, awaken their appetite for artistic and cultural fields, and sharpen their civic outlook on our environment.

Objectives

• To encourage architecture school students to work with middle and high school students to discover the challenges of architecture in our society.
• Encourage encounters with higher education students, architects and artists from diverse backgrounds.
• Discover various fields of artistic and cultural research through the prism of architecture

The course of the sessions

For each session, a group of 3 to 4 students is always supervised by the same instructor (a Bachelor's or Master's student from the school). This regularity helps to forge links between the instructors and the students, so that the latter feel more at ease and can more easily exchange ideas with our students.
From the very first session, a slot is reserved for a tour of our school and workshops. Instructors can then talk freely with the students, explaining not only how they got to the school, but also the specificities of studying to become an architect. Then, for all the sessions that take place at the School of Architecture, we take care to preserve these moments of free exchange in small groups (often at snack time) so that participants can discuss with our students the questions they have for their future.
Each year, the students' work culminates in a small architectural design project, linked to the year's theme. At the final session, all students present their work to invited guests. These include the heads of the partner schools, as well as family and friends. This final session
allows parents to gain a better understanding of the issues at stake in our educational project, which is built on the development of a critical, personal and well-argued eye.

Pedagogical tools

For each visit, the School of Architecture instructors prepare documents with maps and activities in advance. This makes it easier for students to get to grips with the tours, as they are guided along the way. The activities defined for each visit help participants to gradually familiarize themselves
with the tools of architectural representation, such as plan, section and perspective.
The pedagogical and expressive tools made available to students evolve over the course of the sessions according to their individual needs. Gradually, they can familiarize themselves with photography, drawing and working with models. All the tools of expression and notions discovered over the course of the year enable them to design the presentation of their final collective project.

Objectives for middle-school students

• Understand the organization of a territory and a building
• Discover different tools of artistic expression
• Learn an appropriate architectural and urban vocabulary
• Become familiar with the architectural design process
• Acquire tools for representing architecture, such as plans, sections and perspective.
• Design a common project as a group
• Become aware of their individual abilities
• Construct and argue a personal point of view
• Develop a spirit of critical analysis

Objectives for instructors (Bachelor's or Master's students at the School of Architecture)

• Adapt their discourse to a young audience: translate architectural and urban vocabulary into simpler expressions
• Stimulate curiosity and exchange with participants
• Adapt to different activities: construction workshops and architectural tours
• Constantly assess the needs of each student to adapt the pedagogy of the activity.
• Participate in the graphic design of activities to make them understandable and fun.