The Evolution of the Descriptive Geometry Course for Architecture Students at a Public University in Northern Paraná

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to discuss how the teaching of Descriptive Geometry (DG) for freshman students of architecture at the State University of Londrina, PR, Brazil has evolved from 1990 to the present. This study examines the problems faced during these thirty years of teaching of DG and the ways they have been solved. It also involved conducting a survey of the different tasks carried out with the architecture students during this period, as well as examining the different educational resources that have been used. These include for example: (a) the use of concrete materials to help students visualize points, straight lines and planes in three-dimensional space; (b) the use of card games that have been purposely designed to enable students to learn lines and planes; (c) the designing of physical objects with a specific architectural purpose; (d) the use of a CAD tool to visualize 3D objects represented through orthographic projections; (e) the use of BIM authoring tools and (f) the creation of a website to make classes and exercises available to students, as well as for setting up the virtual learning environment (VLE) Moodle Platform. Finally, we provide a report on the changes that have been made to this course following the revision of the architecture curriculum in 2019 and the removal of the DG course from the current syllabus.