Juliana Demartini (Gestual Post-PhD student . Project Torre)
PROJECT STARTING AND CONCLUSIONS DATES . January 2019 - May 2020
KEY WORDS . University Extension, Technical Assistance; Self-Produced Neighborhoods; Right to the City.
RELEVANCE . Understood as a transformative action, “University Extension” can be used as a potential instrument for the development of critical thinking and the advocacy of human rights. In this regard, this qualitative research aimed primarily to contribute to the discussion on “University Extension” in Architecture and Urbanism in conjunction with Technical Assistance in Social Housing (Law No. 11.888/2008) in Brazil. The research was based on bibliographical review and on the identification of neighborhoods where FAUL, students, professionals, and communities engaged in participatory and alternative experiences to counter-neoliberal strategies concerning urban production in Brazil and Portugal. The main objective was to stimulate reflection on the professional activity in Architecture and Urbanism and on higher education as possible places of freedom, knowledge exchange and of critical thinking aligned with the right to the city and the promotion of social transformations for citizen emancipation. Authors such as Henri Lefebvre, Paulo Freire, David Harvey and Isabel Raposo are included in the theoreticalmethodological framework of this discussion.