XXXIII European Architecture Students Assembly
workshop pack
easa013 reaction - Žužemberk 04/08 - 18/08/13
CONTENT
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THE NETWORK THE THEME WORKSHOPS SITES REVEALED CONTACT
XXXIII European Architecture Students Assembly
workshop pack
easa013 reaction - Žužemberk 04/08 - 18/08/13
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Spirit which is difficult to describe but easy to feel.
< Cloud workshop at EASA011 Cadiz
THE NETWORK THE ASSEMBLY
It is very hard to define what EASA is. Technically it is a Network, the biggest architecture students network in Europe. The European Architecture Students Assembly has more than a three-decade-long tradition. It was established in 1981 in Liverpool with the purpose of connecting with students from other European countries. Attendees exchange experiences and cultural knowledge, ideas and thoughts. The main activities are various practical and theoretical workshops held by skilled tutors, accompanied by lectures by local and international architects.The Network moves to a new venue every year, providing fresh views and challenges in practical spatial design and theory. For two weeks the EASA community becomes self-sufficient. It brings a unique creative spirit among the participants, also known as the EASA
Working and living together for two weeks During the two-week-long workshops students will use their academic knowledge in practice, make analyses and concepts, develop their ideas, debate, socialize, solve issues within work groups, exchange ideas and experience etc. They will interact with the surroundings, learn how to use tools for material treatment, work with the locals and be introduced to local crafts. Within two weeks the workshops, which might be only at the stage of an idea or conceptual design, will be brought to a realization. They will be concluded with an evaluation and presented at an exhibition. The EASA network stimulates intercultural dialogue. It encourages the collaboration among students of different schools of architecture, nationalities, backgrounds, opinions, which benefits the development of an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thinking process. There is no hierarchy in workshops and activities so everyone can contribute to the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s evolution. There are different attendees at EASA. Organizers provide accommodation and food, coordinate workshops and sponsors, organize
lectures and different collateral events and activities during the assembly. Helpers are usually old easians, helping at the infodesk, lending tools and working in the bar. The backbone of the assembly are the tutors, who run various workshops selected among all the received proposals. They coordinate and lead participants in their work and oversee the results. Last but not least are the participants, the biggest group of people at EASA, which represent almost 50 countries around Europe and abroad. They live, work and have fun together for two weeks. Their day starts at about 9am with breakfast and is followed by workshops through the day. After dinner lectures and parties fill up the night activities. Excursions, sports activities and pop-up workshops are arranged in between to keep the spirit of interaction alive. Along with the obvious - vigorously attending workshops - participants must occasionally help with some easy tasks. Being an almost self-sufficient community, for example participants of each country take the role of cooks for one day. Also for the purposes of meeting new people, each country serves dinner and/or breakfast once per assembly. These tasks have to be taken seriously and carried out meticulously. 5
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< use the frame! react!
THE THEME
Reaction The EASA theme works as a frame; on its basis students think, research and create. It can be oriented very architecturally or simply socially. Reaction as such refers to the people, to villagers, to the response to the state of society. Nowadays active involvement into processes that change our environment is very important. The theme Reaction explores the possibility and the importance of the public’s participation in shaping the space through researching the past, the cultural and social background. On the one hand Reaction is very locally oriented, on the other it explores similar issues in other parts of the world. How to properly react to the current situation with the world crisis and consumer society? What is actu-
ally the architect’s primary job and the job of architecture? How can we help the community when designing public space, even when the architect’s direct influence is not present? How to preserve the knowledge, skills and qualities of construction and design from the past? The theme Reaction is a very wide notion, one that can be interpreted differently by each participant. It is only important that everyone asks themselves how an individual can contribute to a higher quality of coexistence. The theme Reaction is divided into three practical sub-themes, linked to location, tradition and craftsmanship. The three subthemes were not chosen randomly, but follow the classical division of EASA workshops into theoretical, practical and workshops which combine the two. Below are presented the selected workshops through the workshop proposals call. The organizing team received 61 applications, from which 27 workshops were selected and will be carried out during the XXXIII. European Architecture Students Assembly in Žužemberk. Note: Due to the coordination process with the tutors the final selection of proposals may change by the start of the event. 7
Make me think Ludwig Wittgenstein
...city is my playground!
Towards a Topology of Black Fire
In this workshop ideas of modern philosophy are taken for granted and are developed to their very limits, structuring an entire designing system around them, in the form of a powerful logical argument. On the basis of an unhindered transition between the level of concepts and that of experiences, an experiment is set, hypothesizing on whether or not functional space, that can cause the physical and psychological tension of an art installation, is possible. Theory shall fuel design and construction. Can you actually handle that, Easian?
The idea of “City is my playground” workshop is to introduce different types of street art interventions to the participants and share the “know how” with them. In the first phase, trough the series of short lectures, sketching sessions, drawing exercises etc. participants will learn how to make 5 different types of interventions – stencils, paste-ups, stickers, graffiti and murals. Second phase is reserved for the “reaction” - participants will try to find a “surface” or a place where they can make a site specific intervention! There will also be some sketching battles, movie projections, and few more interesting things…
There will be smaller scale technical and learning exercises followed by the construction of a small pavilion building by using deconstructive processes as a method of physical and psychological construction. The outcomes will be a repository/archive of the psychological ideas that the participants go through over the course of the two weeks. This will support the construction of a small pavilion, using in-situ cast concrete. At the end of the workshop the formwork will be burnt, leaving an area where one can take refuge from thoughts, excesses, work etc. amongst the embers. It will be a nexus for the four elements of the world (earth, water, air, fire).
Tutors: Manos Chatzinikolaou,, Greece Myrsini Alexandridi, Greece 8
Tutors: Andrej Žikić, Serbia Chrisa Gkolemi, Greece Etienne Godfrin, France
Tutor: Alex Maxwell, UK
ŽUŽ UP
EASA TV
What makes this city yours?
“ŽUŽ UP” workshop is a combination of theoretical and practical types. Theory observes the basics of animation, various examples and the analysis of Slovenian tales. The second part is the interpretation of the stories and through documentation interacting with the local landscape and creating a movie for the interpreted Slovenian tales. “ŽUŽ UP” workshop is strongly connected with Slovenian written background as the analysis of local tales will we included. Myths and legends will be interpreted today with its unique surroundings and local spirit. Reaction of the past and its interaction with the present is brought to life when these stories are revealed in very well-known surroundings.
EASA TV is about EASA participants, tutors, helpers, organizers, friends, family and guests. EASA TV is about the context, the theme and the country. EASA TV is about EASA. EASA TV tries to cover as much of the assembly as possible and the material is then edited, screened on site at the assembly and uploaded to YouTube. About 3 groups of 3 participants work in teams and create movies about EASA. Tutors are to give information and help participants to create their own movies.
The workshop will have both a practical and a theoretical output. The theoretical part of mapping the village Žužemberk and its surrounding area in various ways is combined with a direct exploration on site. The analysis and information collected is then put onto diverse maps, which will be the base to create interactive games used as a communication tool with the locals and inhabitants.
Tutors: Milda Kulvičiūtė, Lithuania Evelina Vasiliauskaitė, Lithuania Joris Šykovas, Lithuania
Tutors: Alexandra Kononchenko, Belarus Olga Dolinina, Belarus Arian Lehner, Austria
Tutors: Julia Hutzler, Germany Thurid Andressen, Germany 9
Light parasite
://Diffr_action
Floatptures
The workshop “Light paraSITE” is about enlightening different zones of Žužemberk which are now abandoned, but have a great potential. With our workshop we would like to highlight these sites and the nature of Žužemberk, to become more exposed and activated. The most noticeable symbol of the city is its castle, because of which other areas have become overlooked. With that in mind we would first like to deal with the river, old tannery, mill and the round path. These four light installations would serve as the first part of the workshop, where we would get to know the new environment and people.
://Diffr_action is the exploration of light through different mediums. The workshop shall begin with theoretical discussions and an investigation, the result will be multiple small installations including lasers, mirrors and string art, leading to one large interactive space. The constructive side of ://Diffr_Action will in no means be a ‘build’, however a formal location for the final output would eventually be required. This can be a reaction to on site spaces formed within the EASA camp.
Floatptures is a constructive workshop about designing floating sculptures from polystyrene which are laminated into a solid shape. Every participant will have the option to make his own individual floating device and after completion enjoy drifting down the river Krka.
Tutors: Brina Vizjak, Slovenia Sara Badovinac, Slovenia 10
Tutors: Bhavika Mistry, UK Tess Moroney, UK
Tutors: Anna Podroužková, Czech Republic Libor Mládek, Czech Republic Jan Vybíral, Czech Republic
Illumidentity
Trap for a monster
EASA FM
Shaping new identity through light projection / mapping - interweaving and multilayering of traditional local craftsmanship and new digital media. The process will consist of tracing the past, local identity, history and tradition, mapping the present, perception-shift & deconstruction of reality, interconnection and response and lastly facing future, dreams and reaction. The workshop consists of two main tasks performed by two work-groups. The construction group focuses on the building of the surface and/or structure on which it will be projected. Meanwhile the mapping group will focus on programming the visuals and thus enhance the theme with a theoretical background.
The exploration the concept of trapping: good public space ensnares citizens by providing an opportunity by social interaction. Making trap structures will be framed by discussions about different types of trapping: physical and social ones. Some traps will be made to catch food and one â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to catch local population and share experiences through cooking and dining. The market spot will be upgraded as main attraction of locals. Participants will design a market pavilion/shelter, which framework will be covered with feathers and squama. Caught fish can be sold and eaten inside.
EASA_fm is a workshop combining the technical with the creative. As we want to react as well as interact, a radio station offers us the best possibilities to do so. Learning how to collect whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going on around us, and cutting it in a way to be able to communicate it, we can work with the idea of letting the global world get in touch with the local one.
Tutor: Christof Mathes, Austria
Tutors: Inesa Kovalova, Ukraine Kseniia Pundyk, Ukraine Alan Thompson, UK
Tutors: Cansu Pelin Isbilen, Turkey Miles Reay-Palmer, UK Agnesa Vavrinova, Slovakia Thomas Klein, Austria 11
Tapaland 2.0
Soundscape
Light me up
The international quest for the most delicious medieval snack. Each day another European country is welcome to cook with us their delicious native deli! At the end of the day we can sell the food to all the participant after all the hours of hard work on all the workshops!
The sound as a semantic break point and a parameter, creates a new dimension of understanding the surroundings. The free adaption of sound in various environments, or vice versa, enables the unexpected to happen. The word experimental is the best description for our workshop. It’s a workshop that involves an individual and architectural space and poetical relation in between them.
Experimenting with light, using optical fibers, creating interactive installations, looking for new ways to be playful and create a project that consists of individual reactions to the theme, set up and frame of mind of EASA participants in Slovenia. Using existing, organic elements of nature and converting them into light installations, trying to accentuate the positive voids and nooks, reactivating and activating through simple injections of life/light. We are expecting full interest from the participants and freedom while creating the whole project, with minimal input and guidelines from the tutors during the creation period.
Tutors: Willem Barendregt, Netherlands Sophie van Dorsten, Netherlands Joost Harteveld, Netherlands
Tutors: Dominykas Daunys, Lithuanian Andrius Laurinaitis, Lithuanian Tomas Milkamanavičius, Lithuanian
Tutors: Lana Lončar, Serbia Ljubica Arsić, Serbia Aleksandra Stepanović, Serbia
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“Set theory” workshop
Tales of Žužemberk
Holy moley
As Žužemberk’s population is divided into different groups and used to be divided in its history (communists and anticommunists, Catholics and Protestants, city folk and farmers, liberals and clericalists, etc.), we would like to take these groups as mathematical sets and through the workshop’s participatory nature find their intersections (a population which will be a member of both sets). Hopefully the intersection will grow in the future with its ultimate point being the blending of the two sets into one.
“Tales of Žužemberk” is a workshop about expressing oneself visually and verbally in the format of a picture book. It is about experiencing your surroundings and reflecting on them through your own stories. In this workshop we will get to know how to deliver your architectural thoughts through texts and illustrations. Everyone can come up with their own story and put their own book together. Most of all, we want you to experience, think, write, paint, sketch, draw, make collages, be poetic and creative.
As Žuzemberk and the river krka have a big history with water mills, we want to take this part of its history and reinterpret the use of water mills. We will build a typical water mill wheel out of wood, connected to a well designed balk to produce electricity that enables the lighting of the balk with romantic kitschy fairy lights. This way we show how the moving water of the river can be used in a historical and effective way - but for a modern kind of absurd easa-style use.
Tutor: Tamara Rijavec, Slovenia Natalija Zanoški, Slovenia
Tutors: Roland Reemaa, Estonia Laura Linsi, Estonia
Tutors: Lena Kohlmayr, Austria Kerstin Pluch, Austria Jakob Braun, Germany 13
Accordion
Small Interventions
Analogue Adventures
The aim of our workshop is to develop one or two 1:1 installations. The structures will have a resolved component system that explores the performance of the thin wooden slates as well as a joining system. The structures will be developed from their sites, responding to the location through questions of light, wind, and behaviour. We expect for the final exhibit to have one or two different installations in different sites, depending if we, together with the participants, find it appropriate. Still, we find it most important in our workshop to focus on the process, to inspire the participants through practical experiments where they get the chance to explore and experience the materials’ possibilities and limitations with their own hands.
Small Interventions is one of the longest running workshops throughout EASA history. The scale of the interventions often integrates more easily in its environment as it is always intended to address directly tangible issues within the assembly surroundings. First, participants will wander around, searching for a site and/or an issue they want to focus on. Then they will design a “small intervention” that will solve, improve or brighten the particular site condition. Through theoretical work, models and detail plans they will also define a “generic” description and a construction manual of their intervention.
This CREATIVE FILM PHOTOGRAPHY workshop is about exploring, documenting and revealing the relationship that exists between man and architecture. Images isolate truth; expose realities, influence, and bear witness to time. Participants will be encouraged toseek out and expose the hidden architecture within familiar and everyday situations, capturing moments in a unique and fairly unpredictable way and present images that are more an interpretation of reality than a correct representation of it. The Analogue Adventures participants should bring their own old-school analog cameras – and if your analog camera happens to have a digital friend then let it tag along too.
Tutors: Elias Lindhoff, Denmark Sebastian Mardi, Denmark 14
Tutors: Hugo Pointallart, France Lucia Brandoli, Italy Romea Muryn, Poland Janine Tuechsen, Germany
Tutors: Helena Mouton, South Africa Lisa Henderson, South Africa
City Bot
Oursoftrefuge
Rekukivate!
We think that the time of new cybernetic personalities is coming; it is currently working on the internet as different apps, gadgets and internet bots. These new personalities are playing the role of interdisciplinary and intercultural translators. With the help of them people more freely understand each other. And architecture should REACT to that challenge of contemporaneity. The aim is to make an experimental installation with an object of a new type into the urban environment - City Bot. We will analyze the information layer of local traditional culture with the help of local craftsmen. Then we will design and build the interactive installation City Bot.
The aim is to generate interactions between the users and make social, spatial experiences in that elastic woven space. During the research and construction part we would like to work with locals and participants as well. Our goal is for everybody to learn some specific woven techniques and construct a space where they can float - meanwhile experiencing another kind of architecture. The end result will be an elastic woven space and everybody will be invited to try the floating experience using the structure. We would like for the space to be permanent so that locals may use it after EASA has left the area.
In aesthetical theory the body is used to be seen as the instrument which is used by the mind to perceive the world and to get the sensual input to be processed and reflected by our mentality. According to the relatively young aesthetical discipline Somaesthetics, the body with all its abilities is way more important for experiencing and reflecting the world - itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just a machine but in fact cannot be separated from the mind. The dualism of body and mind is now being doubted. Somaesthetics provides new methods of generating awareness of physical existence as well as interactions. With these techniques we are able to listen to the whispering of built objects.
Tutors: Nataly Nemkova, Belarus Alexander Hodyakov, Belarus Artem Atrashevsky, Belarus
Tutors: Roland Nemeth, Hungary Ildiko Valicsek, Hungary
Tutors: Patrick Jaritz, Austria Zsofia Paczolay, Hungary Zsofia Szoke, Hungary 15
Onion
Umbrella
llustration/illumination
The ambition of our workshop is to touch the very roots of it. Any form of reaction / interaction or the sum of those causing any kind of human interrelation of various levels starts from the simplest form of coexistence – sharing a mutual space. If we tried to imagine the very primitive form of coexistence of human beings, there would be no cultural or historical backgrounds, no language, no symbolic values and no other means of communication but the pure presence or the sum of “presences” being dropped together. The workshop suggests one to experience such kind of pure relation, isolated from the rest of the system, making the natural - humansenses based - reaction so complicated in the environment we outlive. Tutors: Justinas Jakstonis, Lithuania Elžbieta Bortkevič, Lithuania Viktorija Rimkute, Lithuania
Umbrella is the longest existing workshop at EASA, being there every summer and producing newspapers with fresh news, experiences, insights every day. Umbrella is a specific workshop where people learn how to work together, to get to the point of every workshop in a very short period of time, how to interest and attract people, how to speak without SAYING a word and mainly how to make and support the easa spirit. We write about easians and watch their reaction.
Žužemberk is a canvas, waiting to be exhibited. The source of our material will be the local folklore, history, our personal reactions and we want to illustrate this with projections, colour, shade and reflections, which will always be in confrontation with their environment. We are inspired by simple, site-specific interventions that have a beauty in today’s saturated and generic surroundings and think Žužemberk is the perfect place to explore and display this approach.
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Tutors: Hanna Varanets, Belarus Lizzie Daly, UK Maria Virshich, Belarus Cheryl Ann Bonello, Malta
Tutors: Karolina Przybyła, Poland Michal Switalsk, Poland
Endor Tree houses and tree cities have been a huge fantasy of our generation and mayor dream scenarios or locations both in movies and in most people’s dreams. Endor is a workshop that attempts to build one of those tree cities in the woods of Žužemberk, but with the aesthetics and techniques of modern architecture rather than those of fantasy or sci-fi movies. The project consist of several 20m2 modules supported by the trees at heights that vary from 2 to 6 metres from the ground interconnected by footbridges and walkways. Built with wood and steel we hope to leave behind a different and structurally sound leisure area for the people of Žužemberk to enjoy.
Tutors: Emilio Roldan, Spain Javier Diaz Garrido, Spain Alvaro Paya Piqueras, Spain
Competition: The pavilion on the square in Žužemberk An international pavilion competition is a sort of catalyst of the EASA event between the organizers, the participants and the sponsors. It starts already prior to the meeting, connects the participants during the meeting and remains at the location after the meeting to commemorate the event and in honour of the hosting venue. Construction of a permanent pavilion or installation is an idea that has been implemented since 2003. The workshop is linked to a specific site for which students offer possible solutions. The proposals are then reviewed and evaluated by a competition committee, convened for that purpose.
Tutors: Jack Richards, Great Britain Will Burgess, Great Britain 17
accommodation site IT lab municipality
restaurant store
competition site
eventâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s central space
old tannery ruins
sports
sports
loka
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< all the sites are within 5 minutes’ walk
SITES REVEALED
The idea of this year’s EASA is to make Žužemberk and EASA one thing; a community within a community. Common life of the locals mixed up with the craziness and positive energy of EASA participants. Accommodation site The level of comfort at EASA is usually at a minimum. Throughout the years attendees have experienced almost everything: campsites, old buildings turned into living spaces, schools, gyms, old factories, etc. The idea of EASA is not an ideal holiday in an all-inclusive hotel; it is a two-
week community bonding experience, where the main purpose of the gathering is interaction, working and living together, helping each other and helping the community itself. In this spirit the comfort at EASA is replaced by quality workshops and activities that change your perspective of life. Organizers of the easa013 event are setting up the accommodation area in the building of Žužemberk’s primary school and partly outside in the L-shaped school playground. Half of the participants will be sleeping in the gym and the other half in a tent-type building standing on the paved football pitch. Accommodation for tutors, helpers and participants will be mixed and/or visually divided. The level of interaction will reach its peak :) The site will be equipped with a 24h Info desk, sanitation for 500 attendees, a serving and eating area as well as other items for obvious necessities. Other sites for workshops and activities Certain other sites are planned for purposes of some workshops and sports activities. There will be a multipurpose hall arranged especially for computer based workshops and the camping site along the river bank, called loka, will be available for swimming and sunbathing as well as football and volleyball tournaments. 19
square store
competition site
outer trench toilets workshops tower 1
entrance
<
tool box workshops tower 2
bar area
projections area
<cellar inner trench
storage
inaccessible ruins
lounge
office
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< The castle and main square as the event’s central space
The event’s central space It is difficult to say when the castle was built. The year 1000 seems the most likely since it was engraved above the entrance into the rectangular Romanic tower, along with the castle chapel of St. Ulrich, built in 1046. Several buildings were added around the tower many times in its history; however the main extension to the castle was enabled by the so called Turk tax, by means of which the prince bishop Krištof Raubar fortified the castle with seven defence towers or bastilles between the years 1526 and 1533. The castle became an unconquerable fortress. After being abandoned in 1825, the castle started to show its age. The roof above the northern part collapsed, as did the courtyard façade
a decade later. During World War II the castle was attacked several times and it received the most destructive blow in February 1945 when the allies bombarded Žužemberk. As a consequence the tower collapsed in 1948 and the castle as well as the town lost their vertical accent. In 1957 renovation of the castle began and in 1996 the Board for renovation was established. Nowadays Žužemberk’s summer cultural events take place in the castle courtyard and the former wine cellar, some of them even on the square in front of the castle. The positioning of the central site of all the happenings is crucial if you want your event to have an impact on the community. The organizers in collaboration with the local municipality decided that the site should be the core space of the town, the castle walls and the main square. This important public space, being the center of this community, is going to be the ideal place for all the activities during easa013. The castle walls will host all the lectures, presentations, formal inaugurations, exhibitions, day activities, one-day workshops and other smaller workshops and night activities, such as parties, concerts and more. You can see it on the map on the left. 21
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< The project is supported by
CONTACT
For any information regarding participation at the easa013 event, please contact your representatives. The NC list is in the previous section. For any other questions related to workshops, the pavilion competition or the event itself feel free to contact us at: info(at)easa013.si The Association The Association of students of architecture EASA Slovenia was established back in 1997 in Ljubljana after students organized two SESAMs, one in Škofja Loka in 1996 and the other in Sinji Vrh near Ajdovščina in 1997. Prior to those there was an INCM hosted in Ljubljana in 1993 and again ten years later in 2003.
Team easa013 Aljoša Merljak, project manager Tadej Pavlič, NC, sponsors coordinator and logistics Aleš Kobe, competition and workshops coordinator Matic Brdnik, lecturers coordinator and media Andraž Lečnik, program coordinator and promotion Marta Vrankar, design and logistics Pia Mikolič, helpers coordinator and logistics Matic Kašnik, NC, logistics Tabita Jerant, participants coordinator Helpers, National Contacts, friends, families and more.
The team of students who run the association and take part in the assemblies has always been pretty strong. There are still connections with Slovenian ex-easians, some of which are even professors at the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana and the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Maribor. Društvo študentov arhitekture EASA Slovenija Kersnikova 4, SI-1000 Ljubljana www.easa013.si easa.si(at)gmail.com www.fa.uni.lj.si/easa. 23