INTRODUCTION: The visible exhaustion of the traditional teaching model for physiotherapy, along with a new professional profile and a change in the approach to the health-illness process (which has come to include functionality), has stimulated the need for new pedagogical projects for teaching physiotherapy. This should include a perspective of social and economic transformation of the regional population (in this case, the administrative region of Ceilândia, in the Federal District, Brasília, Brazil). OBJECTIVE: To present a pedagogical project for the undergraduate course in physiotherapy stressing education focused on human functionality in scenarios of professional practice,e proposed by the Brazilian public healthcare system. METHODS: The curriculum is being constructed in an innovating perspective with proposals regarding the general realm (lifestyle centers, biological systems, physiotherapy skills and scenarios of physiotherapy practices), specific realm (health maintenance, health-illness process, healthcare, human functionality, process of permanent education) and complementary realm (research and extension activities). RESULTS: The pedagogical project proposal was carried out in such a way as to complement the expected general and specific goals as well as professional and social profiles. The indissociability of teaching-research-extension presumes a reference in the professor-student relationship for the comprehension of research and extension activities as fundamental elements of the teaching-learning process linked to experience in the actual context, thereby concretizing the relationship between theory and practice, focusing on the public healthcare system. CONCLUSION: The diversification of practices in the context of the public healthcare system includes a perspective of social and economic transformation in the population within the social and political scenario of the Federal District. In this context, priority is given to the education/training of generalist, reflexive, critical physiotherapists, involved from the beginning with community service on different levels of healthcare, addressing aspects of human functionality in accordance with the needs of the Brazilian public healthcare system.