The Self-building of family environments

between the affective place and discussion about technique

Abstract

This paper has its origin in a doctoral research, in progress, whose methodological development led to a didactic activity developed with students of the Architecture and Urbanism program from a private higher education institution in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The debate, carried out in the classroom, about the topic of popular self-built housing and technical assistance, eventually became an analytical stage of the thesis and a research that generated a project presented at the institution, during the Research and Extension Week. The students involved in this focus group live, without exception, in self-built housing on lots with more than two houses, located in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro and the surrounding municipalities of the Baixada Fluminense – a very common reality in the context of urbanization of Brazilian cities. As a focus group, the Architecture students and young architects were invited to reflect on certain categories of the social layer, building process, and affective relationships. The meetings took place on a weekly basis, remotely. Through these meetings, narratives, graphic material, and possible answers were extracted for the inter-relationships between the grade of affectivity and the frequency of changes/additions to buildings.