Abstract:

Research and teaching are part of every exhibition. On the one hand, exhibitions require documentation and the elaboration of a precise and clear discourse that, if possible, provides new perspectives on the subject. On the other hand, they aspire to be attractive and, to a certain extent, educational for the target audience.

This communication presents the specific case of an exhibition on Urbanism organised between the Municipal Archive of Valladolid and the Instituto Universitario de Urbanística of the University of Valladolid (Spain), in which this double condition of research and teaching was approached from a collaborative and transversal perspective. The aim was, on the one hand, to adjust to the transversal nature of Urbanism and, on the other hand, to reach a triple and different audience with a teaching will: local citizens, university students and school and high school students.

From the point of view of the documentation, organisation and presentation of the exhibition, the combination of different materials (plans, photographs, press, models, videos, drawing instruments...) aimed at representing the multiple aspects of local urban planning (spatial, technical, social, political...) and its diverse agents (planners, citizens, politicians...). This was possible thanks to the collaboration between different professionals (architects, archivists, engineers…) in the preparation of the exhibition.

From the point of view of its development, specific teaching activities for the triple target audience were prepared. In the case of citizens, guided tours and a series of lectures by technicians who had been directly involved in local urban planning were organised to expose the processes that built every city. The latter also served to bring university students of urban planning closer to the reality of this profession, which was combined with specific visits and activities programmed in some of their courses in order to reinforce their understanding of the transversal nature of urban planning. In addition, specific workshops were prepared for infant, primary and secondary school students in order to increase their knowledge about their closest urban reality through collaborative activities in different scales (school, square, neighbourhood), according to their age and maturity.

This experience has demonstrated the great pedagogical usefulness of exhibitions in bringing a transversal discipline such as urbanism closer to different audiences, using an equally transversal approach and collaborative methods both in its preparation and its parallel teaching activities.

Keywords:

Urbanism, Urban Planning, Exhibition, Architecture.