eastern lab
2013
INCM
INTERMEDIATE NATIONAL CONTACT MEETING BUCHAREST, ROMANIA, OCTOBER 2013
SESAMPACK
Meet Gavrila, an urban monster with a PROBLEM
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So, let Gavrila be your chaotic guide in this journey, tag along, be creative and start experimenting!
Faced with an overcrowded city, he has no option but to wander around aimlessly
INTERMEDIATE NATIONAL CONTACT MEETING
SESAM PACK (Small European Students of Architecture Meeting)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
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EASA SESAM Eastern_Lab Rethink EASA Reuniting SESAM conclusions Managing your SESAM Other ideas Our team
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1. EASA
There is no definition for what EASA is (European Architecture Students Assembly), or maybe it wouldn’t be fair to put a label on it, as it can be so many things. Officially it can be called a network, but one can simply define it by the EASA Spirit - you can only feel it, it cannot be described. Either way, what is certain is that it is an ephemeral organism that craves for metamorphosis and maybe even metempsychosis each year. It all started in 1981, when architecture students from Liverpool made a call to the other students from European countries to help them with problems in their city. Since then, EASA developed and started gathering every year more and more people in different places around the world, trying to discuss a different problem. Taking advantage of the cultural mixture that EASA unites to attempt to study the host location through the lens of a particular theme. Both the multidisciplinary and cultural exchanges are important parts of the event, as well as alternative education - changing the way the student and the tutor connect. The whole event is grounded on the idea of being organized by students, for students, as independent of formal education and universities as possible. The tutor becomes a leader and not a pedagogical orator. There is no central organism that coordinates the whole movement; decisions are made by the gathering of representatives of each country. Each year EASA takes on a legal form in it’s new location and it is represented by a new team of organizers.
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1. EASA
The main event is the assembly which gathers around 400-500 students and young professionals from the field of architecture and other closely related fields in a different part of the world each summer, under another theme revealing itself through workshops, debates and conferences. The other main EASA event is the INCM (Intermediate National Contacts Meeting), a smaller meeting of the representatives from each of the countries involved. It takes place during autumn and mainly consists of debates, discussions and conferences on EASA’s organizational issues, as well as trying to explore a theme in a smaller scale than is accomplished during the assembly.
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2. SESAM
Apart from EASA and the INCM, there are also other events that everyone in the network is free to organize and take part in. SESAM (Small European Students of Architecture Meeting) is an international workshop promoted through the EASA network. Usually, the theme and size are at the free choice of the organizers/tutors, with no limits as to where, when or how many a year can be organised. These workshops mainly focus on a specific aspect of a matter, as opposed to EASA, which aims to treat a subject much more comprehensively. SESAMs reunite old friends from EASA throughout the year and also involves new people too. They depict the unexpected element, the yearly variations that keep the network alive, outside of the main events.
We suggest a different approach of the EASA structure of events - a fragmentary INCM, developed through many SESAMs, which culminates in the INCM 2013 – a medium/long term study through different perspectives and everyone is invited to take part in our experiment.
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3. Eastern Lab
Concept The first idea that comes up in our minds when talking about the Eastern Lab is that of experiment, due to the overlay of traditions, history and foreign influences. This lead us to studying the problems that occur everywhere around the world, but are identified by an urban mixture, at any scale and level, such as the one in Eastern Europe. We would like to analyse the variety of urban spaces of Europe through challenging you to hold a SESAM in your city, that will end up with an actual intervention – varying in scale from place to place. The focus will be on a certain type of space – the semiprivate area from ‘behind’ the high rise block of flats, as found anywhere in Europe, all similar yet different enough so as to allow us to observe and contrast the cultures and mentalities they present.
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3. Eastern Lab
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3. Eastern Lab
Europe used to be dominated by strong traditions – a possible factor for this could be that the family was central to the community throughout history. This is linked with the semi-private / semi-public area that we propose to study, as it is the space that creates (or not) a community, a ‘family’. This is visible in the mismatch between the traditional way we are used to do things, and the new, general trends, that we aim to adopt but are not able to entirely accept.
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3. Eastern Lab
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3. Eastern Lab
Interventions The interventions that we suggest will consist of creating spaces for the community, like the insertion of urban furniture, vegetation, or rejuvenating an existing space or a part of a building. We can see this as a continuation of the experiments we did to analyse and regenerate certain Wastelands, while trying to see the Reaction of the people and authorities regarding the actual installations. To which extent will there be a Symbiosis between the new and the old elements and how will they be accepted? Another important part of the SESAMs should be a very strong documentation of the entire process: not only the progress and outcome of the workshop but also the preparations involved in the workshop and the impacts it has in the local community and environment. This experiment of working with a community might show us which are the legislative problems encountered, but also the way the community accepts and uses such a place.
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Eastern LabLab 3. Eastern
choice
history
adaptability
overlay
background
change
foreign inuences
movement
chaos
tradition
mixture
superstitions
contradictions
urbanisation
mismatch
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3. Eastern Lab
Approach The Eastern Lab can be approached from many different points of view: architectural, artistic, sociological, urbanistic, anthropological, philosophical, political and whatever crosses your mind. We encourage the creativity and the diversity of the workshops, as we would like to have a complex view on this issue at the INCM 2013. In the end, the approach of the workshop and the means by which you get to the final form of the concept of the workshop is at your own choice. We would like to mention that we don’t claim that we are going to solve the ‘problem’ of Eastern Europe (also because we don’t think of it as a ‘problem’), but rather identify and analyse the mismatched elements by making a parallel between various areas. Everything is an experiment and we will all discover its results at the INCM 2013, and maybe raise some questions.
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3. Eastern Lab
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3. Eastern Lab
Different functional and cultural models – how do they work?
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3. Eastern Lab
DiямАerent mentalities between generations
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3. Eastern Lab
Global versus local
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3. Eastern Lab
How do we mix and communicate?
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4. Rethink EASA
The strongest element that brings and keeps the network together is the fact that we are all interested and involved in architecture, one way or another - all the rest varies, as it should. Let’s think about the Eastern Lab the way we think of the national evening (*if you have no EASA experience, details will be needed from your NC) – about 450 large spoons of mixed nationalities with a sprinkle of traditional food, drinks and habits; a killer recipe! We can compare that to the Eastern Lab: mixed people with different backgrounds in a place where the idea of origin and adherence to a place are lost, while assimilating other cultures irrationally, so you end up in a place where each does whatever he wants and eventually the whole site development becomes uncontrollable.
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4. Rethink EASA
The Eastern Lab is a lot like EASA, maybe such an experience can intensify the EASA experience. It can be a place to rethink the way the EASA network goes. Maybe by analysing this subject can encourage us to analyse EASA, enough to ask ourselves some questions : where is EASA going? Can we deďŹ ne EASA? What is that thing that makes it so special for us?
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5. Reuniting SESAMS
So who are we? We are the next INCM organizers, that will take place in the autumn of 2013 in Bucharest, Romania, and we want that our theme ”Eastern_Lab” to be more than a framework for the actual event. We would like to be able to study this issue before the event as much as during it. Our aim is to gather all the conclusions of the workshops to form a basis for the study at the event – manifested in exhibitions, debates, conferences. We would like for the participants to give some thought to the theme before the event. As it was mentioned in Vienna, a communication platform between workshops should be established. We propose a basic but visible method: all workshop proposals for SESAMs will be sent to us and we will make them public so that everybody knows what is happening. More than that we would like to co-ordinate the workshops so that they support or study on the Eastern phenomena.
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5. Reuniting SESAMS
The results The goal is that in the end, the INCM in Bucharest will serve both as a discussion platform and an exhibition of all the gathered material from the workshops. This way, a partial image of the society and architecture in Europe will be created, but also a global image of the EASA network and its ability to sprawl, create and connect. This will represent a database from which we can go further and develop. Moreover, we aim to publish all the workshop presentations, along with texts written by participants/ EASians and the statistics that we will draw from the ‘online workshop’ before the INCM, in a book/final report that will be available at an international level.
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6. Managing your SESAM
Who? How? Being an EASA event, the workshops will mainly be promoted through the EASA network, but there are no restrictions – anyone can organize and be a tutor of a SESAM. We encourage people as different as possible, from different fields of study and with different backgrounds to organize a workshop. However they are organized, there should be a collaboration with the National Contacts. Our idea is to have an intense period of several workshops all around Europe, treating the same subject by different means, like having more labs working to the same goal. As far as we are concerned, we are trying to give everyone a push to organize SESAMs, get involved in European issues, be creative and strengthen the EASA network! We will try to make it easier for the SESAM organizers through constant communication and maybe help at a conceptual/practical level. Moreover, we will start our experiment, the fragmentary INCM, by announcing that we will be hosting a SESAM in Romania also.
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6. Managing your SESAM
SESAM proposals should consist of an A2 paper format (420 x 594 cm) and should include: - the concept and the sketch of the proposed intervention or the aim of the workshop - the name of the organizers - the location, timetable and the approximate number of participants for which the workshop is intended + any detail that you think is necessary for the SESAM. Everything should be sent at the following address: eastern_lab_sesam@yahoo.com Note When you think about organizing a SESAM you should consider all the aspects that such an event includes: concept, legal approval for your intervention, promoting your SESAM, gathering ďŹ nancial aid and materials, interested participants and so on...
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6. Managing your SESAM
Schedule The deadline for workshop proposals will be the 28th of February 2013 and SESAMs can take place anytime between February and June 2013. By the end of July, we would like to receive a ďŹ nal presentation of your workshop, conclusions and documentation, everything that you would like to display at the INCM 2013 in Bucharest, Romania and you discovered to be relevant for the theme.
Contact Communication between us and the (future) SESAM organizers will be made at the following e-mail address: eastern_lab_sesam@yahoo.com In order to facilitate the communication inside the network, we invite everyone interested in the Eastern_Lab to join us: on the FB group Eastern_Lab SESAM - http://www.facebook.com/groups/410524252358587 or EASA Romania page - http://www.facebook.com/EasaRomania
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6. Managing your SESAM
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7. Other Ideas
"Architecture is that great living creative spirit which from generation to generation, from age to age, proceeds, persists, creates, according to the nature of man, and his circumstances as they change. That is really architecture."
Frank Lloyd Wright , “In the Realm of Ideas”
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7. Other Ideas
Architecture is mainly about the people, the society and about its habits, it is created out of the peoples’ need of shelter for their activity, so it is deeply connected to the essence of man, to how he uses the space and relates to it. That`s why we thought about getting to know each other better. So we came up with the proposal of gathering some data from each country so that we can define the differences between us, the way we think and we connect to one another and to the spaces we live in, and through this to be able to understand what were the reasons that transformed the city into the way it is now.
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7. Other Ideas
This will be another experiment, the ‘online workshop’, that will consist of monthly 5-minutes-themes of thought sent to us in order to be gathered in a database, so we can have a debate on each of the subjects at the autumn INCM and we`ll try to enhance the social aspects that came out and the way they influence our lives, mentalities, the architecture and the cities we live in.
Everything will be integrated in the Eastern Lab (travelling) exhibition and in the booklet that we aim to publish. Moreover, we also intend to participate with this project at the Bucharest Architecture Annual. We have other surprises in store for you so don’t forget to check for updates regularly! To be part of this you only have to join our Facebook group Eastern_Lab SESAM or be part of our mailing list and to be just in time with the answer! - give us an e-mail with the title Newsletter at eastern_lab_sesam@yahoo.com
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8. Our Team Ruxandra Balanica
Maria Cristea
Iulia Catalina Cucu
Andrei Dan Musetescu Liana Gheorghita
Adina Anghel
Andrei Pomana
Roxana Roca
Madalina Bebereche Mihaela Ciurus
Anca Oncioiu
Alexandru Catauta
Marius Chiriac
Photo credits to: Andrei Dan Musetescu, Liana Gheorghita. Other photos used have Creative Commons-licensed content for commercial use, adaptation, modiďŹ cation or building upon
This SESAM Pack was issued by EASA Romania http://easa-romania.blogspot.com http://www.facebook.com/EasaRomania and it is a *MUSHI Design product.
Gavrila
Special thanks to Adam Powell and Alper Kurbak.
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Thank you all for the support and enthusiasm showed at the INCM 2012 in Vienna, the place where the idea of this SESAM Pack was born.
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