This research concerns the Project subject classes and their characteristics forms in a design course of a private university in Rio de Janeiro. Considering design as a projective and interdisciplinary activity, which implies a reflective practice upon usable objects and information systems, the research objective is to understand how spaces and material resources influence teaching and learning practices. Another goal is to know how design students perceive this subject. The aim is to observe teaching and learning practices and the usage of material resources and classroom spaces in that course. The choice regarding the project subject is due to its pedagogical importance training designers and the role assumed in a curricular reformulation, in 2007. The data collection combines participant observation in two classes and the accomplishment of a graphic representation task in four classes. The drawings are analyzed in two ways: according to content s occurrence in a general sample and according to forms of interaction in a reduced sample. The data interpretation is influenced by and contrasted with the findings of the participant observation. Based on the analysis, a relation with Bakhtin s genre concept is established, considering specific forms of interaction, communication purposes, spatial and material arrangements. It is emphasized that the classes assume specific spatial, material and interactive forms that can be understood through an expanded notion of genre. Nevertheless, the awareness of spatial and material resources appears with low prominence, although it is observed during the field research. There is a reflection concerning the separation between mind, body and space in society and the typical disciplinary tendencies of modernity that hinder the integration of knowledge and limit other possibilities of knowing.