INDEX STUDIO at PUCPR!
The International Design Exchange (INDEX) Studio is comprised of graduate-level Architecture and Urban Design students from Kent State University (Ohio, USA).
On February 17th, the PUCPR School of Fine Arts welcomed for the first time a group of students and professors from Kent State University. During the one-week program, the group studied the impacts of changes in the auto industry in cities, besides other subjects related to Architecture and Urban Planning.
The International Design Exchange (INDEX) Studio is comprised of graduate-level Architecture and Urban Design students, and it was “established to build an understanding of urban issues through comparative analysis of two urban conditions, one in Northeast Ohio and a second, international, urban area. Through this comparison, graduate students gain a new perspective on familiar surroundings as well as a deeper understanding of challenges facing cities around the world. The similarities and differences identified between the two urban contexts are used as the basis for context-sensitive design responses”. (KSU, 2020).
The Spring 2020 INDEX studio, taught by Urban Design Adjunct Professor and Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) Associate Director Quilian Riano, is doing an analysis and proposal project for the for the Rebouças neighborhood and industrial areas alongside the Green Line project in Curitiba, Brazil. During the program at PUCPR, students learned about Curitiba’s urban planning, including the development of the Bus Rapid Transit system in the 1970’s, which is an example to many cities all over the world, including the Health Line in Cleveland. “In Rebouças they learned about the Vale do Pinhão — an effort to transform the neighborhood into a high-tech center. The students also toured Vila Torres, a low-income neighborhood right outside of PUCPR in which Laboratorio da Cidades has many projects including projects to improve the buildings and landscapes of a local public school, a community urban farm, and an employee-owned sewing cooperative.” (KSU, 2020).
The architect and director of PUCPR Culture and Sport Department, Prof. André Turbay, says that the relationship between KSU and PUCPR began to strengthen in 2015, through the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, Kent’s urban design laboratory. The project is similar to the PUCPR Laboratório das Cidades, which motivated the partnership. “Now we receive this group to work especially with the impacts of the remodeling of transportation and the automobile sector”, explains Turbay. According to the architect, the surroundings of PUCPR become interesting in this study due to the transformations in the Green Line, in addition to Prado Velho and Rebouças, a brownfield in Curitiba – an old industrial area that needs to be remodeled and generate other activities.
The PUCPR Design Professor, Camila Teixeira, is one of the representatives in charge of this project and points out that the partnership is an interdisciplinary opportunity for students from both universities, due to the various extension projects and activities linked to the laboratories. “The idea is that we bring the Laboratório das Cidades to the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative so that we can develop more projects for students,” she explains.
Prof. Marlos Hardt (PUCPR Coordinator for Internationalization – School of Fine Arts), Prof. Quilian Riano (KSU), graduate students from KSU and Architecture and Design Undergraduate students from PUCPR at IPPUC (Curitiba’S Urban Research and Planning Institute).
