Jongo’s House workshop
Staff and students from our Spatial Practices programme recently went to Rio de Janeiro to take part in a two-week design workshop hosted by Studio X Rio.
The workshop produced furniture designs and full-scale prototypes for Jongo da Serrinha, a local NGO. The organisation is dedicated to promoting culture, educating the youth and preserving traditional African-Brazilian jongo music. It is in the process of building ‘Jongo’s House’, a new headquarters to host its activities.
Participants were asked to consider the ways domestic furniture can engage the public by creating comfort and intimacy. The designs and prototypes also needed to be creative, low-cost and practical.
Working together with students from PUC-Rio university and local architects, artists and designers, our students developed a new family of primary school furniture.
Their work was informed by research into Oscar Niemeyer and Darcy Ribeiro’s radical ‘Integrated Centres of Public Education’ (CIEP) project, which provided uniform, high-quality primary schools across Rio de Janeiro state.
This project coincided with an exhibition about public education, which featured information on CIEPs, at the Museu de Arte do Rio.
More information:
– Spatial Practices programme
