The Rabasa Lagoons: one site, two courses, a research-based teaching experience

Abstract

This paper presents the results of two consecutive Architectural Design Studio courses carried out at the XYZ lagoons, a 428-hectare vacant lot that has become an ecosystem of high ecological value after its abandonment as a clay quarry. The course was conceived from the absence of architecture understood as urbanization or colonization, using tools such as critical cartography, speculative fiction, and the production of installations. The project was developed as research by design laboratory, in which students assumed the role of researchers and faculty acted as mediators. The creation of a collective atlas, critical maps, bastard manifestos, fictions, and new materialities allowed the development of open hypotheses in response to controversial and complex situations. The results show the capacity of architectural design to produce critical knowledge, foster collective reflection, and open debates transferable to other vacant lots, urban peripheries, and transitional territories.