The Need for a Repository of Tools and Methods for Socially Situated Architecture Pedagogie

This prologue introduces the SArPe project (Socially Situated Architectural Pedagogies), an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership (2022-2025) involving four European universities coordinated by the University of Pavia. The project emerges from a shared concern among educators: the inadequacy of traditional Design Studios to address contemporary social challenges. Drawing on the concept of "utopian realism," the author argues that architectural education must engage with global challenges—social inequalities, access to housing, urban discrimination—without abandoning transformative ambitions. This orientation positions the architectural project not as a neutral tool but as an ethical instrument capable of responding to real needs and contexts. The chapter presents the SArPe Repository as both a result and a starting point: a dynamic, open-access collection of tools and methods for situated architectural pedagogy. Organised into three categories—interdisciplinary analysis tools, reinterpreted teaching methods like Live Projects, and pedagogical strategies for studio organisation—the repository makes explicit a "tacit knowledge" often left unspoken. Tested through Summer Schools in Brescia, Istanbul and Malaga, and design laboratories in Pavia, it embraces a "slow cooking" approach that prioritises depth over speed, adapting tools to specific places and communities rather than imposing universal solutions.