ABSTRACT
The chapter addresses the research theme of the body that was pursued by Global Tools as an example of the post-war educational practices that marked the passage from objects to behaviours and embodied experiences as primary instruments of pedagogy. The Global Tools workshops, which were developed in Italy between 1973 and 1975, are only one expression among several experiments in radical pedagogy which, in that period, began their struggle to emancipate the discourse and practice of the architectural and design education being provided in accordance with the existing canon. Starting from the researches and workshops of the Body group and inscribing them into the specific culture of the period, this analysis will try to offer a possible understanding of the material and discursive positioning of human bodies in spatial and materialist education and also of the use of embodiment in educational practices. While the somatic, disciplinary and embodied dimensions of educational practices have long received attention across many educational fields of study, less has been written so far on the pedagogical potential of bodily practices in relation to architecture and design practices.
