Los Seminarios Montevideo:	| english version
	espacios para la reflexión y la propuesta colectiva a través del proyecto
	Arq. Salvador Schelotto
	Los Seminarios Montevideo en una mirada retrospectiva	| english version
	Arq. Salvador Schelotto
	Inusual confluencia de aportaciones	| english version
	Arq. Mariano Arana
	Una reflexión desde el Comité Académico	| english version
	Arq. Hugo Gilmet
	Los seminarios Montevideo vistos por los invitados extranjeros	| english version

The Montevideo Seminars:
Spaces for collective reflection and proposals through the projects
Salvador Schelotto, Arch.

The Montevideo Seminars are annual meetings that provide a forum for academic work and discussion on urban and land planning issues. These are approached through the project and they integrate contributions from various disciplines and institutions.

Throughout their history, and ever since their first edition in 1998, the Montevideo Seminars' general objectives have been the following:

•  To contribute to the training of the School of Architecture's students, teachers and graduates and people from other academic milieu, and to be active players in the public and private arenas and society in general, on issues related to urban and land management work through the contribution of national and foreign lecturers and professionals and, very specially, using collective work as project workshop.

•  To deepen the vision on stressful issues that might trigger social, environmental and territorial mutations.

•  To make progress in an inter-disciplinary reflection on alternatives for the contemporary city and territory.

•  To propose ideas that may set the performance guidelines.

Year after year, various topics and areas are identified and selected at each edition, in an attempt to make progress in the collective construction related to specific issues, but always guided by the above-mentioned general objectives.

The Seminars are co-organized by the University of the Republic's School of Architecture and various public institutions, and the Municipality of Montevideo has had an outstanding role, seeking to integrate the most decisive players around the topic and area selected each year. Furthermore, at all editions, the seminars have received the academic, organizational and/or material support from public and private institutions and/or the organized society. We wish to highlight the permanent commitment of the Society of Architects of Uruguay and the Centre for Architecture Students, the latter of which has a decisive role, through the Traveling Groups, in the birth and consolidation of the initiative.

Participants include national and foreign faculty, professionals and students, coming from various university departments, public and private players, also including instances open to the public in general.

A ctivities are organized at spaces devoted to the exhibition and debate on the topics related to the theme to be approached, as well as subjects of general interest (talks, lectures, panels, exhibitions) and Project Workshops, which are the very core of the process of discussion, development and drafting of proposals. Several Project Workshops are organized every year, under the guidance of a Director (usually a foreign guest) together with a team of the national faculty and contributions from advisors. Workshop participants spend almost two weeks drafting a proposal that is subsequently presented and debated at plenary meetings to hear the contributions of invited lecturers. The Workshops' plurality elaborates on common topics and/or areas, and provides a forum for various contributions, very often contrasting, hence enriching the debate and the collective reflection.

A substantial part of the working processes and the main products are recorded, filed and/or published to build a long-lasting basis, both for the university teaching task, and for the formulation of proposals on things to do in the territory and the city.

Some proposals have been in fact adopted and incorporated as a basis for concrete proposals and actions for public players.