Abstract:

Technical experience, the organization of workshops and construction sites schools, represent an innovative teaching method whose importance becomes even more strategic in the field of university education of the young people who are approaching the profession of engineer or architect.

"Learning by doing" is undoubtedly the most immediate method to bring students closer to professional practice and to put to the system the knowledge learned in the different teachings that converge in the course of engineering and architecture studies, from technology of the materials passing through the technological design, the static of the structures until reaching the organization of a construction site.

The present contribution aims to illustrate an experience of "construction site - school" organized for the students that are attending the course of Technical Architecture at the Polytechnic School of the University of Naples “Federico II”, included in the context of a workshop promoted by the "Pontinpietra" organization for the professional training of engineers and architects.

Starting from the theme of the self-construction the organizers of the event involved the practitioners first and then the students, in the construction of a dome built without ribs, only through the use of the compass, according to the traditional constructive technique (of Nubiana origin) that has made known the architecture of the Master Architect Fabrizio Carola. This experience has shown that training by the "construction site - school" can be considered an educational model for community activation and offers the opportunity to strengthen the transmission of cultural values and identity of peoples through the transfer of traditional construction techniques and knowledge of local materials.

The reflections emerged downstream of the workshop will be presented by analyzing different aspects of this didactic method, through considerations concerning: the evolution of methods to teach technical disciplines in engineering faculties, from frontal didactics to experimentation on the site; the different approach of participation in the "construction-site school" of professionals and young students, the first-one most hesitant but curious to learn, the second-one most critical but practical; the importance of the transmission of cultural values through the learning and practice of local constructive traditions that represent, through the built, the identity of a site; the effectiveness of the professional teaching method in teaching of technical architecture.

For this purpose, the contribution collects the point of view of the professionals who have organized and participated at the workshop, of the professors and researchers and, with particular interest, the feedback of the students recorded both through interviews and through the storytelling of the experience that the participants have made to their colleagues.

Keywords:

Innovative teaching approach, construction-site school, workshop, University education, compass technique.