Architect and teacher with extensive experience and highly involved in the processes of continuous improvement for higher education in architecture. I am convinced that the best teaching practice lies in the design process and in strengthening the collaborative and proactive spirit of young students. I think it is important to confront students with the real and current problems we face today since that would lead them to develop the needed skills to face the great challenges that our interconnected world and society. I am convinced that the development of a much more acute perception of reality (be capable to detect the most urgent and priority needs), is achieved from the simple exercise of taking the students out of the classroom. I am more interested in architecture as a process than as a result. As a process of social interaction and coming together, as a process of building identity, and of course, as a process of learning.
Architecture has the potential to generate meaning for those who participate in the process of its conception and its realization. Architecture is a container for human life, so just as we measure the ecological footprint of a building, we can say we could measure the human life contained in its making and its use. I am interested in architecture that is based in the most basic and urgent social needs. Not in the author architecture mainly published, but an architecture made with the people and for people. I am also very interested in the assessment and rescue of existing buildings with a potential re-use. I am convinced that most of the architecture to come will always be based on an existing building. Working with a specific materiality and constructive conditions already established will be the common practice in a few years. Students should learn to have that starting point every time. The optimization and creative use of resources will be one of the most necessary competencies for future architects and designers.
Finally, I am also an advocate to include internationalization in the teaching-learning process. In more than 20 years of teaching I have seen how any kind of international experience have a very significant impact on the training of both students and teachers. I worked more than two years in the Tecnológico de Monterrey Liaison's Office in Barcelona where I learned the importance of international strategic allies and the relevance of having partners outside the institution. I started and managed several collaboration initiatives for the areas of architecture and design that are still active in my School and that have transformed the lives of many students and teachers. I have always worked to build a solid faculty for my School and an important part for its development is to expose the teachers to an international experience.
darodrig@tec.mx