INCM Lapland 2017 Final Report

FINAL REPORT INCM LAPLAND 2017 IMPACT/INTACT 17-26/11/2017 OULU + INARI FINLAND

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INCM Lapland 2017 was part of the official programme of the centenary of Finland.

INCM LAPLAND 2017 FINAL REPORT “Make final reports, not war.” -Tedy INTRODUCTION INCM Lapland 2017 6 Support 8 EASA – A Brief History 10

THE BIDDING The Idea 14 Organizing Team 14 Bidding Preparation 15 Theme: Impact/Intact 15 Locations: Oulu/Inari 15 Timing 20 INCM Madrid 2016 22 PREPARATIONS AND PRACTICALITIES Establishing EASA Finland ry 26 Meetings 28 Dividing Responsibilities 30 Logistics of Two Locations 32 Accommodation 34 Budget 36 Sponsors 42 Public Relations 46 Lectures 48 Workshops 54 Food 56 Waste 60 Logistics 62 Roadtrip to Inari 64 Weather 66

Graphics 68 Website & Social Media 74 Newsletters & Communication with NCs 76 Found Countries 80 Visas 80 People 82 Moderation 84 Helpers 86 Expectations 88 THE EVENT Day 0: EASA Hostel 94 Day 1: Arrival Day 98 Day 2: Presentation Day 104 Day 3: INCM Bidding Day 112 Day 4: Lecture Day 122 Day 5: Workshop Day 134 Day 6: Excursion Day 144 Day 7: EASA Bidding Day 1 156 Day 8: EASA Bidding Day 2 166 Day 9: Sรกmi Culture Day 174 Day 10: Departure Day 182 OUTCOME Documentation 186 Impact/Intact 187 NC Responsibilities & Roles 189 Website Workgroup Statement 192 Feedback to Bidding Teams 200 Of the Selection Process 202 NC Role 204 AFTERMATH What We Learned 208 Feedback 214 Links 216 Photographs (mostly) by Alexandra Konochenko Layout + graphics by Aki Markkanen

INTRODUCTION

INCM LAPLAND 2017 NORTHERNMOST EASA EVENT Finland has a long history with EASA, having a team already attending the very first assembly held in Liverpool, England in 1981 and having hosted the EASA summer event twice, in 1987 and 2012. Yet, INCM Lapland 2017 was the first time for the Intermediate National Contact Meeting to be held in Finland. The event took place in northern Finland on the first days of winter. The idea of organizing INCM Lapland 2017 started forming already at INCM Alba 2015 and gained momentum in EASA Lithuania 2016. We began imagining how it would be to take INCM further north, so north that it would be the northernmost event ever held in the history of EASA! The 28th Intermediate National Contact Meeting was organized by EASA Finland in Oulu and Inari. INCM Lapland 2017 took place on November 17th – 26th, 2017 with the theme Impact/Intact. The event was part of the official programme for Finland’s centennial. We had people joining us from more than 50 countries and we were extremely excited about reclaiming connections to the last lost countries – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Wales – all of whom joined us at INCM, making the community of European architecture students complete.

As all EASA events, INCM Lapland 2017 was organized by a group of architecture students and young architects. Our journey in organizing INCM Lapland 2017 has been long but simultaneously extremely rewarding. In this Final Report, we want to share and pass on to the future organizers and the whole EASA community the experience and knowledge we gained from organizing the event, and make the process transparent. The report is a documentation of the event itself with emphasis on the ‘invisible work’ that took place in the background before, during, and after the event. We worked hard to put together a magical and engaging event which we hope was something special for everyone, an EASA event to remember.

With love, Joonas, Jenni, Leena, Julia, Anni, Papo, Aki

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SUPPORT

INCM Lapland 2017 would not have been possible without all the help and support we received and we want to heartily thank all the supporters, sponsors and partners of INCM Lapland 2017!

Patrons/Supporters

Sponsors:

Media partrners:

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Collaborators:

Architecture practices:

ARKKITEHTITOIMISTO ---------------------------------------------ULLA RAHOLA ----------------------------------------------

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EASA – A BRIEF HIST O R Y

EUROPEAN ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS’ ASSEMBLY The European Architecture Students’ Assembly is an annual event and a network of architecture students from all over the world. Every summer the event takes place in a different country whereby 600 design students, graduates and tutors live together in a community-like setting. The assembly takes place over two weeks and includes construction and theoretical workshops, lectures, as well as other cultural and architectural endeavors. EASA acts as a platform for the exchange of social, architectural and cultural experiences.

EASA was first held in 1981 within the context of an architectural crisis, with the idea to bring students together and give them a voice to be the critics and designers of their own education. One of the most beautiful things about this community is that it is a self driving force in itself – ever since its inception the event has occurred yearly in all corners of Europe with always new generations willingly taking charge.

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1981 Liverpool 1982 Delft 1983 Lisboa 1984 Aarhus 1985 Athens 1986 Torino 1987 Helsinki / Putikko 1988 Berlin 1989 Marseille, 1990 Karlskrona, 1991 Kolomna, 1992 Ürgüp, 1993 Sandwick, 1994 Liège 1995 Zamosc 1996 Clermont 1997 The Train 1998 Valletta 1999 Kavala 2000 Antwerp 2001 Gökçeada 2002 Vis 2003 Friland 2004 Roubaix 2005 Bergün 2006 Budapest 2007 Eleusina 2008 Letterfrack, 2009 Darfo 2010 Manchester 2011 Cadiz 2012 Helsinki 2013 Zuzemberk 2014 Veliko Tarnovo 2015 Valletta 2016 Nida 2017 Fredericia 2018 Rijeka 2019 Villars-sur-Ollon 2020 Valga 2021 Kragujevac

England Holland Portugal Denmark Greece Italy Finland Germany France Sweden USSR Turkey Scotland Belgium Poland France Scandinavia Malta Greece Belgium Turkey Croatia Denmark France Switzerland Hungary Greece Ireland Italy United Kingdom Spain Finland Slovenia Bulgaria Malta Lithuania Denmark Croatia Switzerland Estonia Serbia

| Starting the EASA Experience | Uncertain future | Social Spaces | Turning Point | Interpretation and Action | Architecturi Latenti | Architecture and Nature | Dimension Between | Heritage et Creative | Exploration | Regeneration | Vision 2000 | The Isle | Consommer l’Inconsommable | Beyond the Borders | Dream Builders! L’Hérault | Advancing Architecture | Living on the edge | Osmosis | Dissimilarities | No Theme | Senses | Sustainable Living | Metropolitain - Micropolitain | TranTrans Transition | Common Places | City Index | Adaptation | Supermarchet | Identity | deCOASTruction | Wastelands | Reaction | Symbioza | EASA Links | Not Yet Decided | Hospitality. Finding the framework | RE:EASA | Tourist | Apahty | Reality

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INTERMEDIATE NATIONAL CONTACT MEETING EASA introduced the INCM for the first time in 1991 in Berlin Lichterfelde, where the ‘Lichterfelde Statement’ was written. This statement is now known as the ‘EASA Guide’ and is updated each year at INCM. INCM is a meeting of the representatives from each of the countries involved in the EASA network. It takes place during autumn and mainly consists of debates, discussions and conferences on EASA’s organizational issues, as well as exploring a theme in a smaller scale than during the summer assembly. ​ At INCM, countries are invited to bid to host future events. The location of the next summer assembly is decided two years in advance and the location of the next INCM is decided one year in advance. What is remarkable about this decision making process is that no decision is final until consensus has been reached between approximately 100 national contacts. It usually takes an entire day or even two to reach consensus for each event.

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1990 Plovdiv Bulgaria 1991 Berlin Germany 1992 Torino

Italy 1993 Ljubljana Slovenia 1994 Tallinn Estonia 1995 ZĂźrich Switzerland 1996 Istanbul Turkey 1997 Sinaia Romania 1998 Sandomierz Poland 1999 Mannheim Germany 2000 Tal-Fanal, Gozo , Malta 2001 Berlin Germany 2002 Bornholm Denmark 2003 Ljubljana Slovenia 2004 Belgrade Serbia 2005 Brighton United Kingdom 2006 Moscow Russia 2007 Motovun Croatia 2008 Nicosia Cyprus 2009 Vaduz Liechtenstein 2010 Copenhagen Denmark |Community 2011 Baku Azerbaijan 2012 Vienna Austria | Night 2013 Bucharest Romania | Eastern Lab 2014 Berlin Germany | Evolution 2015 Glasgow / Forres Scotland | Perception 2016 Madrid Spain | Retroactive 2017 Oulu / Inari Finland | Impact/Intact 2018 Vitosha Bulgaria | Continuity 2019 Trpejca Macedonia | Jato 2020 Valka Latvia | Just

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THE BIDDING

THE IDEA The idea for organizing INCM Lapland 2017 started forming already at INCM Alba 2015 and gained momentum in EASA Lithuania 2016. We began imagining how it would be to take INCM further north, so north that it would be the northernmost event ever held in the history of EASA! Quickly after returning home from Lithuania we decided to bid for INCM 2017. There was not too much time before INCM Madrid and so we began an intensive brainstorming and planning period. We started by forming the organizing team and shared all of our thoughts, from seemingly small and unimportant details to event-defining large-scale ideas that fell into place rather quickly and a clear picture of INCM Lapland 2017 took shape.

ORGANIZING TEAM First there was Leena and Joonas. Moments later there were also Jenni, Julia, Anni, Papo and Aki. We formed a solid team of seven individuals, all bringing something valuable and unique to the mix. Most of us knew each other well from before, however some of us were just recently acquainted.

We didn’t really have any plan of action when it came to putting together the core organizing group. Instead, it came together quite naturally. Leena and Julia were experienced Easians, Jenni and Joonas were NCs at the time, Anni and Papo were a power couple that had taken part in EASA Lithuania in 2016 and fallen in love with EASA, and finally Aki was the missing cornerstone of our group who had incredible talent for graphic design. Together we formed the organizing team.

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B I D D I N G P R E P A R AT I O N The easy part was ready and now came the difficult part. Before coming to INCM Madrid we wanted to have a convincing presentation, which meant we needed to find sponsors, plan logistics, investigate potential (i.e. affordable) accomodations and venues, create a preliminary budget as well as decide on a theme that best suited our event. We started calling through places we thought would be perfect for the event and making preliminary reservations. We thought of possible supporters and began calling the potential sponsors as well and asking for letters of support that gave credibility to our bid. We applied and got accepted to be a part of the official programme of the centenary of Finland’s independence that was about to take place in 2017. Finnish Association of Architects SAFA promised to back the event and the Foreign Ministry of Finland promised to provide visas for free for everyone attending the event. At this point in time, we had found one of our biggest sponsors which made us feel financially more secure.

T H E M E : I M P A C T / I N TA C T We discussed themes extensively and soon realized all our ideas revolved around impact, and influence or effect of some kind – the impact we have as architects on the (built) environment, the impact we have as humans on this planet, the impact we have as a community on architecture students and local communities. We decided to include the word intact to the theme to provoke the idea that sometimes being passive and leaving things as they are might be a better option. The dual-theme Impact/Intact was chosen due to its multifaceted nature and relevance in our event. Also, it made sense since we were planning to bring everyone up north to Lapland, which is renowned for its beautiful and vast nature.

We hoped this would act as a source of inspiration to the discussions and contribute to the general atmosphere of the event.

The theme was visible throughout INCM not only in the location and program of the event, but also in its organization – for example in dealing with waste management, food etc. Its purpose was to spark conversation about the relationship between humans and our environment in its broadest sense. The theme aimed to explore the impact our choices have both domestically and professionally, and how consciously we make these altering choices. It encouraged everyone to evaluate and compare the permanency of the impact our choices have with surroundings that would otherwise remain intact. With our theme Impact/Intact, we wanted to highlight the fact that architects stand in a position of influence in this regard and it is our responsibility to rethink what kind of impact we are having as designers. We need to review and reevaluate our relationship with the remaining intact environment.

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L O C AT I O N S : O U L U & I N A R I

The whole idea of having the INCM in northern Finland began with Lapland. When we began planning our event and the locations for it, it was clear we wanted to go north since EASA events had already taken place in the south of Finland. We wanted to bring the EASA family in the middle of the snowy winter, a previously unheard of setting for an EASA event! Fitting to our theme, we wanted to showcase a place that still has plenty of intact nature, a place of magical beauty, a place like Lapland.

These northern places are extremely delicate to the actions of humans and the impact of climate change. Amidst everything people have built in this world, it is crucial to also have places where we don’t intervene with nature and instead preserve it for the future generations.

We were inspired by INCM Alba 2015 held in Scotland, where the event was split between two locations, Glasgow – the city – and Forres – a small town in northern Scotland. The bus trip to the edge of the island, the feeling of isolation, the beauty of the barren nature and the colourscape created by the low-lying sun might have been what sparked the idea for an EASA event in Lapland. For us, moving locations in the middle of the event acted as a transition to a new phase of the INCM, a new mindset and a calmer atmosphere for the debates between NCs. Most of our organizing team members lived and studied in Oulu which is home to the northernmost architecture school in the world, The Oulu School of Architecture in the University of Oulu. Oulu is the biggest city in northern Finland with over 200 000 inhabitants and is well connected with Helsinki. Oulu is located 600 kilometres up north from Helsinki (the second northernmost capital in the world after Reykjavík), and Inari 600 kilometres up north from Oulu.* Thus it made sense to use the city as headquarters and one of the main locations for INCM Lapland.

However, we felt that Oulu was not north enough, and not in Lapland to be precise. We decided to split the INCM between two locations – the first part in Oulu would be open for guests and local architecture students, the second in Lapland would be only for NCs and bidding teams in a more intimate setting. The bus trip to Lapland would also act as an excursion and a way to show the north to our guests. One of the goals for INCM Lapland was to interact with local communities – the architecture community in Oulu and the Sámi community in Inari.

Tying the location to the theme, we felt Oulu was a city with room for intervention and change. We saw Oulu as a city full of potential for growing as a vibrant young city with beautiful surroundings. However, we found that the city is not utilizing its full potential. The population is quite young, with a lot of students – demographically Oulu is one of the youngest cities in Europe – but the decisions the city makes do not always reflect this. We saw a problem with the land use in Oulu and felt that the city is designed predominantly for cars. That’s not the impact we want to have in the future. *All the teams that held presentations at INCM Lapland used maps of Europe that were missing everything above Helsinki…

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We wanted to give our friends a greater experience of the north and the arctic with it’s beautiful intact nature. We considered several different places for the second location, and after thorough research of possible accommodation and conference facilities we opted to go to Inari. Inari is one of our northernmost towns and a central location for the Sámi people in Finland – a Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the arctic area of Sápmi, consisting of the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Murmansk Oblast in Russia, and the only indigenous people living in Europe. We felt it had the greatest link to our theme of intact, since it is one of the least touristic and smaller villages which still had enough services to facilitate our event. There we contacted the Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos, that hosts the parliament of the Sámi people, about the possibility to have the INCM discussions in the round parliament hall. This, we felt, would be very fitting and exciting for our pan-European EASA community.

MAP OF INARI 1 SAJOS Menesjärventie 2A

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2 INARI CAMPING Inarintie 26

3 PAPANA the bar Inarintie 49

4 SIIDA Inarintie 46

5 GROCERY STORE Inarintie 45 1

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MAP OF OULU

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1 CITY LIBRARY

6 NALLIKARI CAMPING

2 GUILD HOUSE

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3 WALHALLA

8 CITY HALL

4 THEATRE RIO

9 BINGO

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Kaarlenväylä 3

Pursitie 8

Jaalakuja 1

Hallituskatu 11

Aleksanterinkatu 9

Leiritie 10

Saaristonkatu 12 Kirkkokatu 2a Mäkelininkatu 29 K-supermarket Satamatie 26

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TIMING Cold wind, sleet, darkness. Polar night, snow, northern lights. We wanted to have the event when there’s already snow on the ground, darkness is dominant and to push the timing of the event to as late in the year as possible. During the event, the daylight lasted for less than six hours in Oulu – and less than three hours in Inari. There really is something special and magical about this dark and extreme season in the north. It’s not absolutely dark all day long, the sun simply doesn’t rise above the horizon almost at all. It may seem depressing, but when there is that little bit of light it’s incredibly beautiful, wonderfully pink and colourful – sunrise and sunset all at once.

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INCM MADRID 2016

INCM Madrid took place from October 1st - 9th 2016. Intensive prep and final touches for the presentation began the very same day Leena, Joonas and Jenni arrived in Madrid, with Aki working long distance on the graphics in Finland. We were bidding against Bulgaria so we knew it would be a tough bid. The presentation included an introductory video, theme description, preliminary itinerary and budget, travel details as well as letters of support and sponsors that added credibility to our bid.

After the presentation was finished both bidding teams were sent off to Retiro Park. While the others were discussing about the two proposals, we spent the majority of the day bonding with the lovely Bulgarian team, eating ice cream under the trees and showing each other our presentations. We had a lot of great discussions together and we felt grateful to get to spend the day with such like-minded and wonderful people. We saw similarities in our proposals and in the end it seemed irrelevant which bid would be chosen. Afterwards we headed to the city to stroll around, have a bite and were later were taken to a small atmospheric blues bar. We were still in the bar at 3 o’clock in the night when we heard it was time to return to the beautiful La Nube, our INCM home base and hear the result.

The moment we heard the decision the space around us was filled with joy and everything blurred into one big hug. But soon it hit us, now it was time to make it all happen, deliver what was promised.

Let the event organization begin!

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P R E PA R AT I O N S & P R A C T I C A L I T I E S

ESTABLISHING EASA FINLAND RY

After arriving back home from an intense INCM in Madrid we had a short and deserved break. But soon after the real work began.

The first step was to establish our organization in the official registry.

Being an established organization gave us more credibility and more importantly, it provided us with guidelines that structured our actions and helped us keep record of our actions where needed. For example, like every established organization, we had an initiation meeting where rules, plan of action and estimated budget schemes were formulated. This was followed by weekly official and not-so-official meetings. In addition, this meant that we were able to apply for grants as an organization instead of individuals or work groups.

Next, many important and some rather random things took place. We opened a bank account in our organization’s name and got two credit cards for the account (not that random). One of the organizers finally bought himself a smartphone to be better available whenever needed (random but important). We created a large sponsor excel where everyone was assigned potential sponsors to contact. Simultaneously, we searched for grants that we could qualify for and sent many applications for these throughout the fall and spring.

The cold and dark season began soon after INCM Madrid. During this time, there were days where we remember feeling guilty for inviting everyone to Oulu, when it was dark, cold, wet and windy.

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MEETINGS

Our meetings usually took place at some of our homes or at the architecture office in Oulu where Julia and Leena were working at the time. The office was good place to meet because we could use the projector to go through our agenda. We had occasional meetings after winning the bid in Madrid, but as the event came closer we realized we had to have more meetings and put some things in our personal lives on hold to get INCM done the way we wanted it.

Our meetings were mostly held in the evenings and they often stretched into marathons. This was also a clear sign that we needed to have more meetings so that they wouldn’t run as long as they did. As we were officially an association/organization, we needed to have some formal meetings that followed protocol to put into our organization’s annual report. We tried to have only the minimum amount of official meetings and to keep them short, and then only after discuss the event in our informal meetings. Regardless of how official each meeting was, we kept minutes in order to have some sort of reference or proof of meetings that showed what was discussed at each meeting. More importantly, it acted as a to-do-list for many of us that we had to attend to before the next week’s meeting.

Logistically meetings were quite easy to organize since all of us, aside from one, lived in Oulu. Jenni lived in Barcelona and later in Helsinki and attended all meetings via skype. (It felt really weird to see Jenni again in real life when we all got together at EASA Denmark after working together via internet for almost a year already.)

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DIVIDING RESPONSIBILITIES In the spring we divided work that needed to be done before, during and after the INCM into different categories, so that everyone didn’t have to be in charge of everything. Then we selected responsibilities evenly among all organizers. Naturally, many issues came up that didn’t quite fit into anyone’s category or required a group effort. It still clarified things having assigned areas of responsibility, making working more efficient and less stressful for everyone, when you could concentrate on your own responsibilities.

However, the purpose of having areas of responsibility was not to delegate every task to someone, but to ensure that there was always one person who knew the most about any given category and had a clear idea about how on track we were with things in relation to that area. As we all did our best to take care of our own responsibilities, it helped to trust each other and not to stress about all the things that needed to be done. Any doubts, worries or requests for help were always addressed in meetings.

The division of responsibilities was roughly following:

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FINANCE & BUREAUCRACY Searching for sponsors: everyone Sponsors in general: Papo Budget: Leena & Joonas Accounting: Leena Applications and grants: Jenni & Joonas Visas, documents, invitation letters: Jenni & Joonas LOGISTICS & PROGRAM Accommodation: Leena Other venues (e.g. for discussions): Leena, Joonas & Anni Food: Julia & Jenni Waste management: Julia & Jenni Buses: Leena Logistics during event: Papo Info Point: Anni Café: Leena Lectures: Joonas & Anni Workshops: Anni Other program (e.g. sitsit, DJ’s): Leena, Joonas & Anni Discussions during event: Joonas & the moderating team COMMUNICATION & GRAPHICS Public relations: Anni Communication with NCs: Jenni & Joonas Info letters: Jenni, Joonas & Aki Texts for website & Welcome Pack: everyone Graphics: Aki Website: Aki Social Media during event: Aki

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L O G I S T I C S O F T W O L O C AT I O N S Having two locations meant a lot of additional work. We needed to find a second accommodation, organize buses, select a second catering service and so on: basically, we had to find two of each criteria needed for INCM for both locations. In addition, packing the whole event into two buses and few rental cars was challenging. Nevertheless we feel that having two locations worked well for our event and that the contrast between Oulu and Inari perfectly highlighted our theme. The most unfortunate consequence of having dual locations was that we we were not able to take everyone attending or visiting the event to Lapland due to lack of space in both transportation and accommodation. The capacity of the accommodations and the number of seats in buses and cars combined limited the amount of people attending the INCM to 148 in Oulu and 122 in Inari.

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A C C O M M O D AT I O N

Accommodation choices were mainly dictated by price and availability.

At first we searched for a large space like a school with a gymnastics hall where everyone could sleep together but there were none available. Then we asked several offers from hotels, hostels and other accommodation options but in the end they weren’t able to compete with the prices of the cottage villages we found in both locations. We decided to stay in cottages for the nice and cosy atmosphere but also since it was the most affordable option. We asked for offers and did the preliminary reservations already before bidding and confirmed them after winning the bid. We made the reservations more exact as soon as we knew the approximate amount of people coming. In Oulu we accommodated everyone in cottages, in Inari we rented also a few houses and apartments for the organizers, helpers, bidding teams and moderators due to lack of space in the cottage village.

One of the biggest challenges in dealing with accommodation was that we had to keep the bookings open for a fairly long time since we didn’t know the definite number of people. This resulted in misunderstandings and the loss of a few cabins in Inari and therefore some additional work upon arrival. Also, due to really cold temperature (it was -27 degrees celsius when we arrived in Inari), plumbings in a few of the cabins had cracked right before our arrival and we had to make some rearrangements.

During the event we found that staying in cabins was a pretty good idea since they made it possible for party people to stay up and form their own after-parties while others could get their sleep.

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BUDGET

The biggest stressing point when preparing for the event was money. We wanted to make the event as affordable as possible for the participants and this meant having to find alternative sources for funding. We mainly did this through sponsors and grants. As we got more things booked and secured, it became obvious that we needed more money so we had to raise the goal for the amount of sponsors. Our preliminary budget of 30 000 € that we had made for our bidding presentation grew in the end by more than 50 %. Finding that amount of money for the event seemed overwhelming at times.

We wanted to keep the fees as low as possible and originally planned to keep them at 100 € for group 1 (20 € for group 5), since everything in Finland is really expensive to begin with and everyone would have high travel expenses. The fees lived on with our budget and in the end we had to raise them to 175 € for group 1 (35 € for group 5) since we didn’t find any more options for income. The final fee was fixed two months before the event, when we estimated how much we would still be getting from sponsors. Residents of EU countries were asked to pay the fee to our bank account well before the event, while others were asked to pay upon arrival to avoid banking expenses. We would like to point out that majority of the fees were paid late, which made it difficult to control cash flow.

We used a lot of time applying for multiple grants for INCM Lapland.

First, we made a list of all relevant organizations providing grants, when they had deadlines for applications and what we could ask for. The sums we applied for varied between 1 000 to 10 000 euros. For a long time, we waited for the results of a large grant of 10 000 €. We were quite confident that we would get it because the event was perfectly in line with what the grant’s specifications. In the end, we didn’t get it which in turn meant we had to go with higher participation fees.

In the end we managed to get one grant. We received a grant of 5 000 € from the Arts Promotion Centre Finland for public lectures and workshops that would be open to the residents of both Oulu and Inari.

The grant could only be used for these events that had been mentioned in the grant application, although it could have been useful for many other things as well. The advantage in having a grant for a set activity was that it allowed us to put more effort into organizing the lectures and workshops. In addition, it gave the event more credibility since having public program made it easier to market the event for sponsors.

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The biggest expenditure in our event was accommodation, costing more than 10 000 € in each location. Food and logistics during the event cost around 5 000 € both. Our fees covered roughly one third of our budget, the rest was covered by sponsors, the City of Oulu and the grant of 5 000 € for public lectures and workshops during the event.

A nerve-racking thing about budgeting was the fact that the money didn’t come in until the very last moment before the event. Even though we had secured 55 % of our budget from sponsors and grants before EASA Denmark, we only had 2 800 € in our account at that point. The money was still on its way to us. Most of the money came in the last three months, with last deals made a week or two before the event started.

Another problematic factor in money flow was that a surprisingly large portion of the budget came in cash (e.g. a lot of the participation fees).

During the event, finding time to calculate the money and go to the bank proved to be difficult, and we didn’t manage to do that until after the event. Throughout the event we had enough money but some of it was in cash when we would have needed money on our bank account for paying bills. We were not sure until after the event whether we had made it or not. We were afraid we would not get enough money and stressed about it a lot pretty much until the end. Only after our treasurer had paid the very last bill could we fully relax and say: “We did it”. In the end everything went even better than we expected!

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Financial Statement of EASA Finland ry 11/2016–01/2018 Income

41 791,00 €

Fees Sponsors

15 365,00 € 26 426,00 €

Expenditure

40 685,55 €

Accommodation Spaces for Discussions Food Busses & other travel Academic dinner party Prints Entrance tickets to Siida Museum

DJs Establishing EASA Finland ry

Website

Banking expenses

Other expenses

21 685,00 € 2 745,00 € 4 901,58 € 5 416,53 € 2 131,85 € 852,25 € 500,00 € 1 750,00 € 85,00 € 127,59 € 226,53 € 264,22 €

Balance

1 105,45 €

On top of this we had a grant of 5 000 € by Arts Promotion Centre Finland for public lectures and workshops during the event. The grant was not given to the organization but to us organizers as a working group, so we kept the money received from the grant separate. The City of Oulu paid in full 3 720 € for the Guerrilla Lighting workshop that we organized in collaboration with Arkkitehtitoimisto m3 during Lumo Light Festival Oulu. This money was paid directly to the architecture office and did not pass through EASA Finland ry. We were registered as a non-profit organization, and were not taxed because of that. (Then again if we had been taxed, we could have had tax deductions from all our purchases.)

The balance left after the event will be used for printing costs of this Final Report.

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SPONSORS

About one year before the kick off of INCM Lapland, we started to brainstorm possible sponsors. We created an online sheet where we listed companies to contact. The online spreadsheet proved useful because this way all information on sponsors and supporters were kept up to date and was accessible by all organizers. From the spreadsheet we could see which companies we had contacted, when we had contacted them and in what stage the negotiations were going. We also estimated the amount and type of support we were asking. We had a similar system for our overall budget so we could see how we were doing in terms of collecting money at any moment during the process. In the budget we were intentionally a little bit pessimistic with estimations of expenses and sponsors. This way we could push ourselves to collect more sponsors and money.

Before we contacted possible supporters, we made a sponsor email template where we briefly explained what EASA and INCM are, what kind of event INCM Lapland will be, what kind of publicity we are offering and for what price. In the end of the email we had some empty fields where we filled in the details of the sponsor package we were offering. We also made a sponsor letter that was one A4 pdf where we mentioned the size of the event, the location and the main supporters. We believe that this fancy little attachment that mentioned our event was part of the official program of Finland’s centenary year, made our work look more professional and in that way more tempting for supporters.

The sponsor packages we offered were quite flexible but some things were kept the same throughout. We mostly asked for monetary sponsorships in exchange for publicity, with the exception of some food companies from whom we directly asked for their products. It is good to keep in mind some companies might be more interested in giving away their products rather than money, and that in turn could be a way to lower the budget. The amounts we requested ranged from 300 € to 3 000 €, depending on the size of the company and what we offered to them in exchange. The smallest package included the company’s logo in the material we produced for the event and on our webpage, while the biggest supporters had a chance to give a sponsor lecture during the event.

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We tried to get sponsorships without giving away time from the actual event, but for the biggest sponsors we decided to make exceptions. We had two sponsor lectures during the event and a visit to the factory of one of our main sponsors. We actually had supporters who gave us twice as much than others who received the same publicity. We were very open to proposals the companies gave us in return and basically decided to accept any offer we could get, so if a company we had contacted offered us half of the money we had initially asked for, then we usually accepted the offer and gave them the sponsor package for half the price. Lectures were the one thing where we weren’t willing to compromise, and so lectures were only given to those companies who explicitly requested for it and were willing to pay the set price for it.

The usual method of contacting possible supporters was to first find a contact person responsible for marketing in the company and then directly call the person. During the phone call we explained very briefly and in a simplified manner what kind of event we were organizing – that we were going to bring 150 architecture students from 50 countries to Oulu and Inari for ten days for lectures, workshops and discussion, and what kind of deal we were offering. Then, if they didn’t turn us down right away, we would send more details via email, explaining the concept of the event in full and what we were asking for concretely. Usually the rest of the negotiations happened via e-mailing. We believe calling first made our approach more personal and thus harder for the contacted persons to ignore the emails. We often had to remind the companies of our proposal after a week or so by calling them to get a reply. Persistence was key in sealing deals.

Contacting the possible supporters started very slowly in the springtime in 2017. We had divided the work and each of us knew who to contact.

Before EASA Denmark 2017, we had only a few sponsors and most of the listed companies were still yet to be contacted. Finally, about three months before the event we began to gain momentum and confirm sponsors.

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The majority of companies we contacted were fairly small and therefore contacting them approximately three months prior to the event was decent timing. The bigger international companies however often replied that they had set their budgets in the spring and couldn’t therefore help us. For this reason, it would be highly recommended that larger companies are prioritized and would be contacted well in advance and smaller companies a bit later in the process. Roughly three months of proper work on sponsors was rather strenuous since negotiations turned out to take a lot of time. It is also important to realize that if you have not been doing sales before, it will take couple of calls to really get the hang of it. Perhaps, it would make sense to have a few “practice” rounds under your belt with smaller companies before contacting the possible big supporters.

Two months before the event we came up with the idea to contact Finnish architecture offices. Since it is a common way to get sponsors for university excursions we thought this might work for us as well. It was also a way to involve the local architecture community in INCM Lapland and raise awareness about the event and EASA. We decided to ask for fairly small amounts, 300 € from small and 500 € from bigger offices, in exchange for visibility equal to the smallest sponsor package plus a post in our social media channels. Small amounts add up to big sums, this we learned. We contacted 46 architecture offices and exactly half of them became our sponsors, giving us 8 000 € in total, covering 15 % of our whole budget! When comparing the ratio of contacted companies to the ones that actually became our sponsors, the architecture offices were the easiest targets. About a week before the event began we started promoting our supporters on Instagram and Facebook. For social media posts we had asked all of the sponsors to supply us with an image and short text. This way, the material we posted was predetermined and approved by the sponsors themselves and left us with less work.

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I! MO MOI!

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P U B L I C R E L AT I O N S

Public relations are an important part of the work that goes into organizing an event. We wanted to be visible locally but also in the architecture field and community in Finland.

Many steps were taken in order to get the desired amount of visibility for our event. We were included in public event and public conference calendars in Oulu and managed to get an official welcoming reception by the city of Oulu. INCM Lapland 2017 was introduced in the local news site Kaleva.fi and our event was also part of the Lumo Light Festival with our Guerrilla Lighting workshop in Oulu. In addition, we collaborated with the Oulu School of Architecture with our lecture series included in the university’s visitor lecture series. We were introduced in the Finnish architecture news magazine Arkkitehtiuutiset au which is run by the Finnish Association of Architects and is read by most architects and architecture students in Finland. In the magazine there was also an open invitation to our public lecture series in Oulu. INCM Lapland was also accepted as a part of Suomi Finland 100 official national centenary program. Finally, a big part of publicity was managed through our web page and social media.

In order to get visibility, there are loads of bulletins and e-mails that need to be sent. Not everyone will reply but some of them will work out pretty nicely – it just takes time. We found that the easiest way was to write a basic info bulletin and then customize it slightly to better fit different targets. On occasion, we made a bulletin with a layout with our personalized graphics. It felt good to see organizations respond to our efforts and that they felt our event was worth the publicity and collaboration!

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LECTURES

During the event we had two public lecture series under the theme Impact/Intact in both Oulu and Inari, open to the residents of both cities.

For these events we received a grant from the Arts Promotion Centre Finland. The lecture series was another way to introduce and talk about our theme.

The lectures, especially in Oulu, were the part of the program that needed to be settled early on in order to have time to get the lecturers and to find a place that was big enough and free for the required time. We started looking for the venues almost a year before, and that time was really needed. It wasn’t the easiest thing to find a suitable location. We found out that many places were not free for the time or they were too big or not big enough. In addition, we had to think of lecturers who could fit in our theme and set the dates with them. Luckily, we had enough time to sort everything out and find the perfect places that could fit all of us as well as the locals.

IMPACT/INTACT Lecture Event Monday the 20th Teatteri Rio, Oulu The lecture event was organized in collaboration with the Oulu School of Architecture, University of Oulu. We were honored to have Juhani Pallasmaa, Juhana Heikonen and Lars-Erik Mattila as our guest lecturers for the Impact/Intact lecture series.

Juhani Pallasmaa is a highly accomplished architect, professor and author. He is a living legend who has permanently influenced architecture not only in Finland but internationally. He has taught in universities across the globe sharing his inspirational views on experiencing architecture.

Pallasmaa has published several books and essays on architecture itself, the theory of architecture, cultural philosophy, as well as environmental psychology. One of his most celebrated books on architectural theory is The Eyes of the Skin – Architecture and the Senses. Pallasmaa is also the architect behind Sámi Museum and Nature Center Siida in Inari, which we visited during INCM Lapland.

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Architect Juhana Heikonen teaches architecture history at Aalto University and has written his PhD there called San Clemente in Rome.

A New Reconstruction of the Early 5th c. Basilica. In it he examines the San Clemente Basilica, which was built in on top of two previous religious buildings, through virtual archeology tools and strives to uncover its construction process. In addition, Juhana has a direct link to the EASA community, as he was the National Contact for Finland from 1997–2002.

Lars-Erik Mattila is a carpenter and architect alumni of Aalto University who specializes in sustainable architecture. In 2014, he wrote his Master’s thesis on his view of the future apartment building, Tulevaisuuden kerrostalo. His thesis received a great deal of recognition and made the news headlines with his astute criticism of the conventional construction methods of contemporary architecture and for his appraisal of natural and environment friendly materials. Lars-Erik is also a founding member of Suoja ry, a non-profit organization focusing on the ecology, public health and economy of built environment.

As an added bonus, we included lunch (and bar) to the series in Oulu.

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IMPACT/INTACT Lecture Event Saturday the 25th Sajos, Inari In Inari, we wanted to include the local culture of the indigenous Sámi people to our program and dig into their traditional way of life. It was important for us to get some knowledge of the Sámi while we were there and having our discussions in the Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos and its parliament hall. Sámi people have a special relationship with nature, with traditionally a minimal impact on their environment. Sharing her knowledge with us, we had Sámi musician and teacher Anna Morottaja, who gave a lecture about the Sámi culture, traditional Sámi architecture, the marks of humans in the nature, and intact nature. She also performed beautiful singing – yoik and livđe – for us. Livđe is a special way of singing from the Inari Sámi people which is disappearing, but Anna is working hard to sustain it and keep it alive. It was a beautiful ending for the lecture series and instructive in the way she showed us how far we actually are from the intact nature.

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WORKSHOPS

Even though the main point of the event is in the conversations, we wanted to offer some extra action for participants. In Oulu, we organized a Guerrilla Lighting workshop in collaboration with Arkkitehdit m3 Oy in the local underground culture space, Bingo. In Inari we organized a workshop for the bidding teams where they learned about ice fishing in a traditional Sámi way with the guidance of Sámi musician and teacher Anna Morottaja.

The Guerrilla lighting workshop was part of Lumo Light Festival which happened at the same time as INCM in Oulu. It was open for residents of Oulu and students from the Oulu School of Architecture. In the workshop we used portable lights to create temporary lighting designs, and the buildings and cityscape of Oulu acted as the canvas for the designs.

The concept of the workshop was to enable us to see things and places differently, giving us new points of view through temporary lighting and increasing our understanding of light and all the possibilities it brings. In addition, it was an interesting way for newcomers to get acquainted with Oulu and for the residents to see the city in a new way. We showcased the outcomes of the workshop one by one during a walking tour through the city, where everyone from INCM took part in as well as some residents of Oulu. The instructor for the workshop was architect, D.Sc. (Tech.), lighting designer Henrika Pihlajaniemi. The local underground culture organization Kulttuuribingo ry offered their place called Bingo for us to use for the workshop. The building was soon demolished after our event, but it was nice to have the opportunity to show the place to Easians.

Even though in the end the Guerrilla Lighting went well, we had loads of difficulties with the workshop. It felt like everything that could go wrong, went wrong (Murphy’s law)... We were not prepared for the time that it took in the middle of the event and it took much of our energy. So the best advice here is that be prepared for some unexpected arrangements and the time they take.

In Inari we took the bidding teams on a trip to Mutus lake to associate with each other and learn how to fish in traditional Sámi way in the wintertime, while the rest of the INCM attendees was having intense discussions to elect the next EASA host country. Anna Morottaja took us to her home and served us hot tea and hot juice as well as lingonberry pie by the fire on the frozen lake. Anna showed us how to use the fishing net under the ice and everyone had a chance to take part in the process.

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Anna also taught us about the importance of fishing for the Sámi people.

We walked on the frozen lake and enjoyed the view, snow and silence and Anna’s lovely Samojedi dog kept us company. We hope this was a truly special experience for the bidding teams!

The city of Oulu treated us with official welcoming reception in the city hall of Oulu. We were greeted with little snacks and drinks besides the official welcoming words by representatives of the city of Oulu.

We also had a Sauna Night in collaboration with the local architecture students’ union Oulu Guild of Architecture. This Sauna Night was organized to introduce the Finnish sauna culture to Easians as well as to give them a change to meet people from the local architecture student community.

It was nice to have lots of activities during the event but in the end, we felt that we had perhaps included too many things. For participants, there was so much to do in Oulu even without the workshop and it made us question whether it was worthwhile. In Inari though it was nice to have something special to do for the bidding teams when they couldn’t be a part of the bidding discussions.

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FOOD

At INCM Lapland we decided to serve only vegetarian or vegan food for all of our participants for the entire duration of the event. Only on one of the last days of INCM in Inari we served a traditional reindeer stew as a feast, made with locally produced reindeer meat. By serving mainly vegetarian and/or vegan food we wanted to decrease the emissions of our event and encourage people to decrease meat consumption in everyday life. We wanted to take a step towards making vegetarian food more like a norm in EASA events, and meat as an option. Having less options made the food supply more simple for the kitchen team. Also, by having less options for different diets we could control the consumption of food better and decrease food waste, which was one of our goals. We have been happy to hear that some people who attended INCM Lapland have gone vegetarian or even vegan after our event!

Before the event, it is essential to search for donations of food products.

Although searching for sponsor money is one of the most important and time-consuming tasks before INCM, we highly recommend taking some time to ask for food donations. They could be anything ranging from specific products from specific companies to any surplus of any food items from local supermarkets. We received donations from Finnish food companies such as Elovena (instant oatmeal, oat biscuits), Gold&Green (pulled oats, a vegan substitute for pulled pork) and Orkla Foods (herring).

In addition, one of the biggest supermarkets in Oulu gave us donations of bread and buns that had expiration dates coming up soon. Due to the donations we had a few logistical issues, like how to fetch 9 kilos of herring or 144 kilos of pulled oats from southern Finland and bring them 600 kilometers north, while keeping them cold all the way. What wouldn’t you do for EASA? First, we made an educated guess for our food budget and adjusted it according to our findings on prices and other expenses. After the food budget was set and it fit our overall budget, we divided it by the amount of days and the amount of participants that then gave us an estimate of the food budget per person. When that was established, menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner could be planned in more detail. Easy, simple options and not too many alternatives will keep it simple to serve the food and keep track of the consumption. Ordering food ready-made saves a lot of time and nerves and we suggest taking advantage of it at least on occasion, if the budget allows it.

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“Would you mind 9 kilograms/litres�- Some conspiracy humour for the digit 9 popping up everywhere.

We made lists of special diets for each day, where we had the amounts of different diets and names of people with special diets. The daily lists made it easy to keep track of who had special requirements for their meals. The more the basic food fit all the eaters, the easier it was for us.

We estimated the food consumption for half the event, made a grocery list based on the estimate and bought everything few days before the event started. Then from time to time during the event, we made supplementary rounds to the food store. Everything that is needed in the kitchen in addition to food (such as aprons, washing liquids, gloves) is also good to be taken into consideration in the budget and and bought beforehand.

We recommend to get the kitchen team together as soon as possible to go over the meal plans and duties. Kitchen helpers were divided into smaller teams who were always in charge of specific predetermined meals, prep and service. Then each day we met the team in charge in the kitchen and went through what preparations needed to be done. It is necessary to trust the helpers and let them do as much as possible so the organizers can focus on scheduling, shopping lists, maintaining the pantry and of course delegating work. If this is done well, the organizers aren’t needed in the kitchen all hours of the day. For us, it took a while to get the hang of it. We learned that it was absolutely fundamental that the organizers in charge of the kitchen sleep near the venue.

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BREAKFAST In the morning time is always an issue which is why the easy options that can just be put on the table and don’t require much prep or cooking are the best for breakfast. We served bread with toppings, yoghurt, instant oatmeals, fruits, boiled eggs, coffee and tea. As most Easians are sleepy in the mornings, we overestimated the consumption of food during breakfast time and didn’t have to fill our storages as often as we thought.

We noticed a general trend forming when many people showed up just at the end of breakfast time or even well after which meant that we needed to be quite firm when ending breakfast time because we needed all the time we could get for clean up and lunch prep. Otherwise breakfast would have run into lunch time and lunch into dinner time.

LUNCH For EASA events, the typical lunch has often been sandwiches. We decided to make our sandwiches fresh each day which meant we prepared all the fillings ourselves. The size of the sandwiches varied depending on the type of roll we had ordered from the bakery and we served fruit each day as a healthy addition to the meal. Everything we made was lactose-free and vegetarian. The special diets we made separately and tagged them by name. During the last days of INCM we ordered savoury pastries for lunch, as exhaustion took over the kitchen crew.

DINNER Dinners were always ordered from a catering company which meant that they were not only ready-made but also packaged in styrofoam hot boxes so the food was always hot and ready to be served. Our catering was specialized in student catering, so we got our meals for an affordable price. We asked for offers of meals from a few different catering companies with the hope of vegan/vegetarian food. During the event we only needed to pick up the food, serve it at the venue and take back the empty dishes when picking up the next batch of food.

A general suggestion regarding food would be that if there aren’t any places near the venue to buy food in the night, it could be wise to sell something small at the venue.

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WA S T E

As EASA events gather together more than 500 people together for two weeks, we as a community produce a large amount of waste. One of our goals in INCM Lapland 2017 was directly linked to our theme Impact/ Intact: we wanted to pay attention to the amount of waste we produced as an event and as individuals in everyday life. We wanted to take into consideration if there was something we could do with our choices to retain a healthy and clean environment, or if we could come up with something to help guide our behavior towards a more positive direction.

We aimed to have minimum negative impact on the environment and to create a more eco-friendly event by trying to reduce the amount of waste we produced and recycle as much as we could. Recycling in EASA events is always a challenge not only because we are a large community but also due to recycling systems varying between countries.

We encouraged people to take only the amount of food they really wanted to eat to not to produce food waste. We also tried to encourage everyone to take some time to recycle the trash they had produced correctly. We asked people not to throw cigarette butts on the ground, and we were happy to notice at some point that people were actually making the effort to find a trash bin even a bit further away to dispose of the butts. We also gave out old film roll containers for people to carry in their bags for cigarette butts.

Sometimes small things can affect the behaviour of everyone: on one of the first days we took a photo of a waste bin at a designated smoking area, highlighting the dozens of cigarette butts scattered around the bin that hadn’t quite made it in with a caption: “Almost there.“ After that we didn’t see a single cigarette butt on the ground during the rest of the event.

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LOGISTICS

Before the event there was not much of logistical preparation since most of the materials arrived right before the event started. The most important factor in logistics was to organize enough vehicles for the duration of the event. We listed daily tasks that would require the use of a car so that we could get a rough estimate of how many cars we needed for tasks that overlapped in terms of timing. This allowed us to also get an estimate of how many designated drivers we would need.

Organizing the food and café required the most resources logistically. In Oulu we had quite a bit of hassle with logistics because our main venue and accommodation were located some four kilometers from the city center, where we also had some events. For food we had a couple of supermarkets that we had to visit every second day and for the bar we had to get more stock basically every day. Some portions of the event took place in the city center which meant we had to do some additional driving, all of which was anticipated.

There were several things that we did not expect and believe it would be good for all future organizers to be aware of. For example, we had failed to notice that after 11 P.M. there weren’t any bus connections from the Oulu airport to Nallikari (our accommodation). In addition, the person we had hired to run our lighting workshop had forgotten to organize or let us know that they needed transportation of materials for the workshop which meant that we had to quickly adjust and reschedule transportation for that day. Then there were always some beverages that run out and the café realized it only right before opening the next day (it is EASA, that happens). Sometimes you also just miscalculate the time some routes take and you end up driving around for some extra two hours or because you didn’t remember to pick up the tonic water the first time you went to the store. Therefore, we recommend that you count at least double the amount of driving in your estimations because there will always be some unplanned events that could lead to logistic problems or lack of resources.

In the logistics team we had one organizer and one helper. During the event we realized that at times we needed both to simultaneously go on errands which proved difficult when most tasks required Finnish. Also for the logistics team it was vital to know the city on some level so it would be easier to move around. Although, having someone to drive around with was really nice. In the future, logistics teams could perhaps include

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four people who can then divide into two smaller teams. In Oulu having two designated drivers was definitely too little because they had to work 12-18 hour days in order to get everything done.

Naturally the biggest effort went into moving the whole event from Oulu to Inari. The decision of leaving the EASA café in the hands of the local bar PaPaNa made it a lot easier for us because we did not have to move all the beverages from Oulu to Inari. We had two buses that took the excursion route via Pudasjärvi accompanied with the Bulgarians’ car.

For the helpers group we had one mini van with nine places and two normal cars with five places that took the direct road to Inari. The cars we managed to get were sponsored cars from car rental Europcar (two small cars) and a van from Pörhön autoliike. We managed to fit everything we needed in inari in the buses and three cars. We then traveled between Ivalo and Inari getting food from the supermarket and the pre-ordered dinners from a company in Ivalo, approximately 30 km away from Inari.

For the logistics team the Inari portion of the event ended up being very relaxed because even the food errands were mostly taken care of by the food team.

Changing locations during the event added a lot of extra work. For us the distance between the locations was some eight hours by car and that is why our decision of driving all the way there with three cars by ourselves proved to be not the smartest idea. After an intensive 10 days of working and hullabalooing, the eight hour drive from Inari to Oulu was a bit too hazardous for one individual in particular. Luckily the drivers, even when super tired, were alert enough to take short breaks at pit stops along the route to Oulu. In the end, everyone was transported safely and on time! In essence, drivers really really need their rest!

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R OA DT R I P TO I N A R I

After getting back home from EASA Denmark, we really started to work.

Two and a half months before the event begun, a few of our organizers made a road trip together to Inari for the weekend. The purpose of the trip was to check out the accommodation and the only bar in town, clarify logistics, visit the Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos, and gain confidence that we were not completely out of our minds bringing everyone this north during winter! We had a great time driving 1200 kilometers there and back and got to enjoy the beautiful autumn leaf colours, or “ruska” (“the brown”) at its peak. Plus, we saw a white reindeer on the way back!

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W E AT H E R

Since INCM Lapland took place late in the autumn we knew that the weather would be harsh. Oulu in November could treat you with anything from strong winds, constant rain and a few plus degrees to a proper winter. The weather together with the long distances between our venues inclined us to really emphasize the importance of dressing appropriately for the event (in Oulu, the accommodation was one kilometer away from the main venue and four kilometers from city center).

In particular, we were afraid that our beloved friends from southern Europe would not take our warnings seriously about the intensity of the cold, so we decided to make a little introduction video showing the proper method of layered clothing that we imagined would help people prepare for the north. We also underlined the fact that walking outside dressed incorrectly can turn out to be fatal, especially if one happens to be enjoying a long night walk under the influence of alcohol. Apparently the video proved to be helpful since everyone came to the event well prepared. One thing none of us could really prepare for though was the darkness, the days lasting for no more than six hours in Oulu and three in Inari.

We had our fingers crossed to have a proper winter during INCM and were afraid it would just be rainy and stormy all the time. INCM Lapland turned out to be timed just right: It started snowing the day the first people arrived and continued for the entire duration of the event. The white snow started to pile up and every day was a bit colder than the previous one.

The coldest temperature we had was almost -30 degrees upon arrival to Inari. The next days the weather “warmed up�, which made one of the Spanish NCs say in full disbelief that -15 degrees feels warm.

The fresh white snow brought a touch of magic to the event, contributing to the atmosphere by damping all the sounds, making everything more quiet and calm.

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GRAPHICS We felt that there was a need for one organizer to be in charge of all tasks that needed graphic design. This turned out to be a well working idea, giving rest of the organizers more time to focus on their actual tasks and resulting in a coherent visual identity for the event.

Scheduling The most important thing is to accept that graphic design is going to take a lot of time, especially if the graphic designer isn’t a professional.

We failed to recognize this need which led to far too tight of a schedule in terms of designing the website and the welcome booklet which both took weeks to complete. Despite our poor scheduling, we are incredibly proud of the outcome and so grateful for Aki’s efforts in getting everything done.

Creating the design for this kind of event is so much fun that it shouldn’t be spoiled with too wearing of a schedule. The more fun, the better the outcome! Consequently, it’s a good idea to engage someone who is motivated and knows what one is facing or consider using a professional graphic designer!

Material produced: -Logo -Graphic overall identity -Bidding material:

Bidding presentation

Bidding video -Website -Welcome pack:

Welcome booklet

Event bracelet Tokens -Commercial material:

Posters, and adverts

E-mail signature

Sponsor mail

Final Report

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The sweatshop

The logo

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Logo The logo reflects the event as an architecture event with re-inventive and innovative nature. “Changing structures” as it were.

Bidding material Make it appetizing ;) The bidding video was made with a tight schedule before the final form of the graphic identity and in the end it became the source for the overall identity. We had another idea coming up for the event but the video had a nice starkness to it so it was kept as a guideline for the rest of the design. Remember to listen to your gut! Keep in mind that using music in videos usually requires the user licence for it.

Graphic Identity After maturing a few months the “techy isometric wireframe” -style was distilled out of all the ideas. The overall dark/bright identity was to reflect the theme Impact/Intact so it had a wireframe isometry of Oulu and Inari juxtaposed. The urban and the rural. The bearing idea can take up to weeks or months to crystallize into a clear and coherent graphic concept and so it did. When the identity is simple enough it is easy to add it to everything (posters, tote bags, websites, you name it).

Booklet The size of the booklet was chosen because it would fit into a gentleman’s/woman’s/human’s pocket to be at hand at all times. It was entirely a practical approach to have a minimalist layout text hierarchy in the booklet. The back page had all the crucial emergency information and the middle spread was appointed to schedule for user friendliness.

Bracelet The bracelet needed a little spicing up so we decided to have some shock red text to glow under the neon lights! Keeping EASA dinos in mind, it was good to have an easy-to-take-off-bracelet with plastic fastening.

Tokens Everytime an easian bought a beverage they would get a mark on the “intact” side. The purpose of this was to evoke awareness of one’s personal consumption as part of the Impact/Intact theme.

Commercial and formal material In order to seem convincing and professional it’s necessary to have a “corporate look” for sponsor letters and an e-mail signature when scooping sponsors.

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The welcome booklet

Prints and advertisements We spread flyers and posters around Oulu for the upcoming Impact/ Intact lecture event with Juhani Pallasmaa, Juhani Heikonen and Lars-Erik Mattila in Teatteri Rio. We also put an advertisement of the event in the Finnish Architectural Review’s news section to inform the architect field of what’s to come. (This all naturally needed to be designed in a surprisingly short time frame.)

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The bracelet

The booklet

The lecture event poster INCM LAPLAND 2017 17-26/11/2017 OULU + INARI FINLAND

IMPACT IMPACT

INTACT

I N TA C T

INARI/AANAAR/ANÁR/AANAR INA R I SA MI

NORTHERN SAMI SKO L T SA MI

location: 68°54’18’’N 027°01’49’’E in the region of Northern Lapland around 1150 kilometres north of Helsinki (978 km straight line distance)

20 - 11 - 2017 15:00 RIO

Why Inari? Fitting to our theme, we wanted to show you a place that still has plenty of intact nature, a place of magical beauty, a place like Lapland. These northern places are extremely delicate to the impact of climate change. We feel that places like Inari are very precious for us all: amidst everything humans have built in this world, it is crucial to also have places where people don’t intervene with nature and instead preserve it for future generations.

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Why now? Polar night, snow, the possibility to see northern lights. It’s a very extreme season in the north. We wanted to have this event when there is already snow on the ground and the darkness is dominant. It’s not absolutely dark all day long, the sun simply doesn’t rise above the horizon almost at all. When there is that little bit of light, it’s wonderfully pink and colourful – sunrise and sunset all at once.

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We’ve provided you with hospitality and the framework, now it’s your turn to get active and begin the discussion!

INARI

BREAKFAST @Inari Camping

BREAKFAST @Inari Camping

SUNDAY 26.11.

7.30

8:00 8.30

9:00 9.30

10:00

SAJOS TOUR @Sajos

10.30

11:00 11.30

12:00

EASA BIDDING @Sajos

EASA BIDDING/ EASA TALKS @Sajos

LUNCH @Sajos

LUNCH @Sajos

EASA BIDDING @Sajos

EASA BIDDING/ EASA TALKS @Sajos

12.30

13:00 13.30

14:00

EXCURSION

BREAKFAST @Inari Camping BUS BACK TO OULU SIIDA @Siida LUNCH @Sajos

14.30

15:00 15.30

16:00 16.30

17:00

EASA TALKS @Sajos

17.30

18:00

DINNER

18.30

19:00 19.30

20:00 20.30 21.30

22:00 22.30

23:00 23.30

00:00

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DINNER @Sajos

DINNER @Sajos

EASA BIDDING @Sajos

EASA BIDDING/ EASA TALKS @Sajos

DINNER

21:00 EASA BAR @PaPaNa

KAAMOS JAZZ/ MOVIE NIGHT @Sajos

EASA HOSTEL @Guild House

EASA BAR EASA BAR @PaPaNa

EASA BAR @PaPaNa

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K

A

“To kindly introduce the new generation of NCs to our circle as there is going to be a lot of them. To re-remind the importance of this position. Rethinking the concept of ‘consensus’.”

SATURDAY 25.11.

I

I

“Food policy for next EASAs, meat as option, vegetarian as the norm, way cheaper and easier to organize.”

FRIDAY 24.11.

E

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“In Fredericia I really began to be captivated by the ‘spirit’ which seems to connect and drive us all to continue to expand and progress the growth and development of our community and its output. The theme for INCM Lapland of ‘Impact/Intact’ not only resonates with themes I have sought to question through own personal architectural study and practice, but, following my experience in Fredericia, seems to be of critical importance to the sustainable future of EASA more generally. I hope the event will allow us to explore the legacy of EASA both in terms of the impact we leave behind on the community and ‘environment’ after an event has been completed but also how we envision projecting EASA into the future.”

THURSDAY 23.11.

R

-

L

“Considering the fact that EASA Lithuania faced serious financial issues due to the debt, it would be a good idea to discuss moneyrelated issues.”

WEDNESDAY 22.11.

A

S

-

“Do next EASA’s have to be more and more comfortable and casual or the hippy-ish way of life plays specific role in EASA spirit?”

SCHEDULE

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A

E X P E C TAT I O N S

7:00

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P

We see there are high expectations for INCM Lapland 2017 and we asked from all of you about them, so here are a few examples:

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U

-

27

10

J

The token

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R

I M PA C T / I N TA C T OPEN LECTURE SERIES Welcome to an open Monday Matinée lecture series on Monday, November 20th from 3 to 7 PM, in Teatteri Rio, Oulu.

The lecture is a organized in collaboration with the Oulu School of Architecture, University of Oulu.

The theme Impact/Intact strives to spark discussion about the relationship between humans and our environment its broadest sense. Architects stand in a position of influence in this regard and it is our responsibility to rethink what kind of impact we are having as designers. We need to review or re-evaluate our relationship with the remaining intact environment.

Lecturers in the Impact/Intact -series include: Juhani Pallasmaa, M.Sc. (Archit.), Prof. Emeritus, Hon. FAIA, Int. FRIBA Juhana Heikonen, M.Sc. (Archit.), PhD, EASA NC 19972002 Lars Erik Mattila, M.Sc. (Archit.)

The event is free of charge and registration is not required. More info at www.incmlapland2017.com

The bracelet

The mobile website

The welcome-bag

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WEBSITE & SOCIAL MEDIA

Website Along with the booklet design, the website took the longest hours to realize the separate tasks. A website was a useful platform for delivering all information in one portable package. This is why we decided to use the site also as the vessel for info letters instead of sending them separately to everyone. We executed the letters as “Hidden messages”, protected with a password (which by the way was “incmperkele” for issues 1-3 or “incmperse” for issue 4; it still works, just add /hiddenmessage to the website address) so that anyone with the password would find the information. Along with the “corporate look”- letters the website was useful for getting sponsors. We always put the already hoarded sponsors on display as a sign of trustworthiness.

In order to be helpful for EASA archive, and if possible, we recommend getting a permanent domain. Our domain www.incmlapland2017.com was 90 € per year and after a year it would’ve increased to 200 € per year.

Now after the domain has expired the site still exists but the address has changed to www.joonasparviainen.wixsite.com/incmlapland2017.

Social Media We had Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts for INCM Lapland.

All of these were nifty for creating hype and for quick distribution of information. Facebook was used for sharing more detailed information about the event, sponsors, Alexandra Kononchenko’s photos etc.

Instagram was used for small updates and sharing moments, especially during the roadtrip to Inari! The Twitter account was quite inactive in the end since it’s not an active social media in the same way as Instagram or Facebook, but it was one more thing to make the event look more credible. We could have used more of the power of social media during and after the event itself, but we just did not have the time. It would maybe come in handy to appoint one of the helpers to be responsible for updating/spamming SoMe channels?

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The website

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NEWSLETTERS & COMMUNICATION WITH NCs

The newsletter being on our website and the emails including just the link accompanied with a short text ensured that the mails remained minimal in size and also it directed more people to our website. Each time we posted a newsletter we also posted on the EASA NCs Facebook group saying that a new info letter was out and roughly what info is included. Also we asked each time that the ones who didn’t receive the letter via email to send their up-to-date email address. This was another way of ensuring the information was reaching everyone.

We got the most recent email list of the NCs from the Danish team, but there had been already some NC changes since then. For collecting and updating the info of the NCs we personally contacted at least one of the NCs from each team, and checked that the contact information was up to date. This was quite time consuming and also required us to know someone from each team, so a better system could be considered for the future. The best way would be that the NCs update the information themselves, so whenever there’s a change in NCs, the old NC could update the info of the successor. This could be another file in the NC group, but the problem with that is that not everyone wants their email addresses shared publicly.

Here are samples from the four newsletters we sent, since we believe they really are the best time machine to the months and weeks before INCM Lapland, showing the anticipation and energy before the event begun and what was important at that moment!

(The original newsletters can be found in full online at www.joonasparviainen.wixsite.com/incmlapland2017/hiddenmessage; the password is incmperkele for info letters #1, #2, and #3, and incmperse for #4.)

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“What is the impact we as people, architects, consumers, have on a local as well as global scale? Is there a value in leaving something intact? With the theme we want to explore how we as young architects can influence our (built) environment in a way where we leave the valuable essentials intact and minimize negative impact, because everything we do, every choice we make, big or small, has some sort of impact. The chosen theme will guide the discussions we are going to have during the event and we’ll also have lectures centered on this theme. We will take you from Oulu, where human impact is very much visible, to Inari, where the environment is very much intact. Experiencing the difference first hand will hopefully lead us to think more closely about how we can or should influence our surroundings.”

(Info Letter Nº1, 11.9.2017)

“What To Bring?

-WARM CLOTHES!!! We cannot emphasize this enough, it will be cold so please bring enough warm clothes. Weather in Oulu can range anywhere from +10 – -20 C and this means it might be wet, or snowy or both. At the moment the weather is very moderate, rainy and windy, yet a week ago we had full winter with -15 degrees, so you can expect almost anything.

Especially in Inari we can expect freezing temperatures. We suggest you bring good walking shoes, ideally waterproof or even two pairs so you can alternate in case one pair gets soaked. We will do a fair bit of walking so comfortable shoes are important. Windproof clothing is also a good idea.

Just to make sure everyone will be dressed correctly…..see next section. :) -Festive “smart casual” clothing for the academic dinner party, Sitsit.

-Sauna gear (swimsuit & towel etc.)

Shoes suited for Finnish winter

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How To Dress Well? ( https://vimeo.com/242268577 )

Summary of pro-tips on how we Finns survive winter: · We dress in layers. Layers, layers and layers… Unlike the Spaniards last year, we like to keep the cold outside and warmth inside, so it’s practical to be able to take off some layers when heading indoors. · We wear beanies that cover our ears and our foreheads to make sure we won’t suffer from brain freeze. · Scarves, as well as mittens or gloves are vital. · We swear by woollen clothing, woollen socks, sweaters, long johns etc. · We climatize. We have about six months of cold and darkness to get used to it all so in that sense nordics have a slight advantage. · And finally, we believe being warm is much more important that looking stylish.

What’s your INCM Lapland look?

On a final note, we advise you to soak up all the sun you can back home, because here, this time of year, there really isn’t any!”

(Final Info Letter Nº4, 10.11.2017)

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FOUND COUNTRIES

After EASA Denmark we put effort into finding representatives for the “lost” countries Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Wales. EASA network proved its strength since in a matter of weeks we got in touch with potential NCs for each of the countries and managed to persuade them to come to Finland to represent their countries at INCM. For Iceland we contacted the Danish team for their existing contacts since they had already tried to get a team to join EASA 2017. We also knew there had been a Welsh person in the English team who we contacted about starting up a new team. The other two countries were “found” by shouting out at the EASA NCs Facebook group and by coincidence, there happened to be students from both Liechtenstein and Luxembourg studying in Tampere, Finland. All four countries were present at INCM Lapland and at EASA 2018 all European countries with architecture schools were represented, for the first time in the history of EASA!

VISAS

We found the information concerning visas to Finland from the website of Foreign Ministry of Finland and contacted the people who needed visas individually. We emailed the invitations instead of sending them via mail because we knew from previous experience that mail can be rather slow and unreliable in some places. In the previous years, there have been problems with the invitations arriving too late. We highly recommend handling visas as early as possible and to take this into consideration when planning the time frame or schedule for the event registration.

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PEOPLE

In total 148 people took part in INCM Lapland, including NCs, moderators, bidding teams, organizers, helpers, and guests. We had 88 NCs representing 50 different countries, four of which were newly introduced either back or for the first time to the EASA community.

Only two countries were not represented at INCM Lapland. 34 guests, including bidding teams contributed to the overall atmosphere of the event with their presence and energy. Due to logistical issues and lack of accommodation space we could host guests only in Oulu and not in Inari, where there were 122 of us in total.

Overall our attendees had attended in average 4 EASA events before INCM Lapland: 2,5 EASA’s, 1 INCM, 0,4 ITM’s and 0,1 SESAM’s. An average NC had been the national contact for at least one year, had not visited Finland before and had attended two EASA’s, one INCM, and no SESAM’s or ITM’s before INCM Lapland. An average helper had attended seven EASA events in total, had not been a helper before, and had visited Finland but not Lapland before INCM Lapland.

The people making INCM Lapland 2017 were: Organisers

Moderators

Helpers

Panu-Petteri Kujala Aki Markkanen Joonas Parviainen Julia Rytkönen Leena Salo Jenni Salomaa Anni Saviaro

Georgios Kapraras Rossina Shatarova Viacheslav Ivanov

Alvaro Gomis Anton Kiiski Bláthmhac Ó Muirí Brett Mahon Carlotta Franco Dan Pintea Dora Gorenak Isabella Tania Măldăianu Louis Laulanné Matic Kašnik Miglė Paužaitė Mykolas Malskis Svenja Lindner Vassil Vandov Vilius Balčiūnas

Photographer Alexandra Kononchenko

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NCs

Tatevik Hakobyan Paula Brücke Michael Hammerschick Ayla Azizova Nastassia Tulayeva Fedde Holwerda Lotte Luykx Danijela Pavicic Teodor Uzunov Martin Vandov Filip Pračić Tijana Škrivanek Georgios Kyriazis Kleopatra Papapetrou Martin Kunc Dalibor Staněk Selma Zosel Dora Dixon Louis Pohl Ulla Alla Margus Tammik Hilda Uusitalo Rémi Buscot Damien Girard Archil Chikhladze Nikoloz Gabiskiria Phillip Sandner Mara Wörner-Schönecker Lambrina Lyrou Danae Tselou Eszter Gall Elina Torma Arnar Gretarsson Ásta Sóllilja

Thorsteinsdóttir Rory McDonald Kenneth Mason Giuditta Trani Mara Usai Pāvels Osipovs Beāte Zavadska Alexander Sokolov Kipras Kazlauskas Morta Pilkaitė Romain Fassotte Hristina Sekuloska Angela Stefanovska

Guests Lucia Calleja Matthew Scerri Iulia Moscalet Marina Zaiteva Selma Bulić Nikolina Sekulović Olga Berning Charlotte Middelveld Mark Donnelly David Henderson Torfinn Truchs Erga Zofia Kurczych Joanna Lewanska Maria Beatriz Ferreira Michela Pegurri Cristiana Moisanu Ionuț Popa Daria Kleymenicheva Fraser Birtwistle Natalia Malejka Elena Dzinovic Nina Krčum Viliam Fedorko Petronela Schredlova Klara Prošek Dorian Sipos Miguel Angel Maure Blesa Margarita Fernandez Elias Grip Erik Stigland Anca Teodora Lungu Mattia Pretolani Ayşe Tuğçe Pınar Tayfun Saman German Mitish Mariia Pastukh Polly Amery Sebastian Bidault Oscar Zetina Busisiwe Mgwenya Rahul Palagani Saagar Tulshan

Adam El-Hamadeh Alexandra Polyakova Andrei Krokhin Bastian Marzoli Bettina Evelin Varga Bojana Boranieva Bruno Lang-Kosić Bruno Pereira Cecilia Aintila David Grahn Hellberg Dorien Tulp Ella Kaira Ella Prokkola Emmi Jääskeläinen Enia Kukoč Gheorghe Ciobanu Grégoire Guex-Crosier Jack O’Hagan Kacper Kawecki Kaisa Lindström Katrine Brændholt Rasmussen Konstantin Evtimov Liana Gheorghita Liviu Ispas Mahdi Biagioli Mark Cauchi Martina Callus Natalie Hipp Pablo Encinas Robert Colvin Sarunas Semulis Siarhei Ivanou Vana Pavlić Samuel Atkinson

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M O D E R AT I O N

Moderators ensure that everything runs smoothly in the discussions and everyone gets to speak and voice their opinion. They help structure the discussions and keep them productive to find a common goal and reach consensus. We handpicked some of the most trustworthy, hardcore Easians we thought would be best suited for this position at INCM Lapland 2017. The three moderators were Rossina Shatarova, Georgios Kapraras, and Viacheslav Ivanov. The following part about the moderation process was contributed by Rossina:

The moderation as a process was a flux between reason and absurd; “reason” consisting of mutual respect, appreciation of others’ efforts, analysis and sharing in a safe environment (all present in moderation, no pun intended); “absurd” of breaks turning to snowball fights, group hugs, quiet minutes for inner rebalance and dancing to EASA anthems in a parliament building.

Facilitation process consisted of general and profiled discussions, community and small group talks, assignments and open-ended topical sessions. The moderators distributed responsibility in facilitating sessions, changing roles between each other from opening and moderating discussions to keeping track of those wishing to speak and writing down live minutes. Keep in mind each moderator has a different approach and also different level of interference in the discussion.

Discussion as a process can be divided into two categories: interactive and non-interactive. Interactive processes include discussing all together in a big circle or small groups. Big circle discussions are semi-formal and can be a slow, inefficient but on the other hand a communal way of discourse, where everyone is on track at which point the discussion is at. Usually only some talk, others observe. Changing seats from time to time and bringing those sitting in the back row to the front helps to get everyone to speak.

Discussing in small groups is a more informal, dynamic, fragmented but productive way, where everybody gets to talk. Moderators, organizers and more experienced Easians usually facilitate these discussions and they are useful for opening up a conversation and catalyzing work process. Small group discussions can be applied in topical sessions, workgroups, and bidding discussions.

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Moderators and organizers facilitating is useful for setting or finding the general tone and direction and is mostly applied in introductions, brainstorms, setting agendas, sharing summaries (daily ones or of small group discussions), presenting output, and bidding discussions.

When there is not enough time to fully develop a complete course of a discussion, it is good to form a general talk through analytical debate to summarised written output, shared and presented to all.

There are also non-interactive processes where moderators provide the setting, consisting e.g. of online discussions, open online docs, live minutes, blank sheets of paper for notes, blank posters for contributions, and they are useful for creating and collecting output, applied in mostly workgroups.

At INCM Lapland, EASA 2019 discussion started with an open, softly facilitated sharing of first impressions after the bidding presentation.

(Note that this might lead to direct superficial comparison, antagonism and competition instead of critical analysis.) Analysis and summary of concerns and opportunities per each proposal were made, first in small groups, then all together, continued by discussion and posing three concerns and three opportunities per each proposal. Analysis and summary of each proposal were made first in small groups and then all together on the base of following topics: theme, location, workshops & program, economy & practicalities, and impact locally, globally and on EASA. Open, softly facilitated sharing of layered impressions followed.

Facilitated communal discussion, moderation and statements led to a consensus, after which feedback was written down and given to the bidding teams.

Moderators note that more free time for contemplation and informal discussions could be of use.

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HELPERS

First of all we would like to thank all our helpers – we love you Vilius Balčiūnas, Carlotta Franco, Alvaro Gomis, Dora Gorenak, Matic Kašnik, Anton Kiiski, Alexandra Kononchenko, Svenja Lindner, Louis Laulanné, Brett Mahon, Isabella Măldăianu, Mykolas Malskis, Bláthmhac Ó Muirí, Miglė Paužaitė, Dan Pintea, and Vassil Vandov!

Events like these don’t happen without helpers. They are a crucial part of keeping everything up and running. We got 40 helper applications which made the decision who to pick difficult but also meant we got to choose from the best and to collect a wonderful team of 16 most reliable and hard-working people.

First, we had divided the areas of responsibilities amongst ourselves.

Then, we considered in which areas helpers were needed and estimated the need of hands in each group. The groups where we needed helpers (and how many) were photography (1), kitchen (4), café (5), infopoint (4), logistics (1) and technology (1). In addition to tasks assigned within the groups, helpers were also responsible for general cleaning and got some smaller tasks during the event. Organizers leading each group had also other responsibilities during the event and some of us found it exhausting to lead the helpers as well as deal with other things happening simultaneously in the event. It would have been handy to have some extra organizers, or “lead helpers”, who would have worked as an assistant for each group’s leader or organizer and taken more of a role when needed.

As leaders of each group we gathered our helpers together before the event and prepared them for their duties. This worked better for some groups than others. We knew the last moments before the event kicked off would be incredibly busy for organizers but because everyone arrived at slightly different times it was nearly impossible to get all the helpers together for a relaxed meeting to discuss the duties. We recommend helpers to be asked to arrive some days before the event starts if only possible. We couldn’t ask our helpers to arrive so early due to problems in arranging accommodation for them before we got the EASA Hostel set up. Still, we feel that it would have made things run much more smoothly if we would have had a calm scheduled meeting with all the helpers well before the event.

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There were a couple of things we should have done differently that we only realized during the event. Even though we wanted to make sure we have enough helpers, we found ourselves in a situation where more would have been needed. We were also too kind and wanted to give helpers as many opportunities as possible to attend the event itself and this led to us organizers doing too many shifts ourselves. This in turn made us extremely tired and stressed with other things we needed to handle during the event. Small problems or issues felt bigger just because we had not rested enough to think clearly.

The best thing would be to have enough helpers so that organizers don’t have to do many shifts (if any) themselves, so they have time to organize and handle other matters like running the event itself. Anything you can delegate to helpers should be delegated. We also had helpers from bidding teams which we found out was not the best solution since they needed to prepare their presentations as well. Even though it would have been easier to have a couple more helpers altogether, the helpers we did have were the absolute best. We were productive and had lot of fun together!

For communication with the helpers we made a Facebook group chat where we shared necessary info during the event. Some of the separate groups or teams also had their own Facebook group conversations, but if social media is used for informing helpers or participants, there must be good wifi available and everyone should agree beforehand with the used media channel. After the event the INCM Lapland helpers group is still active for keeping in touch with our helpers and sending our love to each other.

The official photos of the event were taken by Alexandra Kononchenko, who captured the spirit of the event magically with her photos and the final video.

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E X P E C TAT I O N S

◉

The polar circle

◉ Westfjords Iceland ◉ Reykjavik

◉ Trofo ◉ Iceland, Hofn

Faroe Islands

◉ 63,7°N ◉ little north from Bergen (Norway)

◉Ö

◉ Jostedalsbreen, Nor ◉ ◉ Flåm ◉ Lillehammer, ◉ Sälen ◉ Oslo

◉◉ John o’ Groats, Scotland ◉ Inverness, Scotland 57.4718°N ◉ Aalborg, Denm Isle of Skye ◉ ◉ Aberdeen in Scotland ◉ Aarhus, Denma Highlands, Scotland ◉ Malm ◉Copenh Billund, Denmark ◉ ◉ ◉ Glasgow ◉ Fredericia, Denm Thurso

◉ Hamburg :)) ◉ Bremen Berlin ◉ When registering to the event, we asked from everyone “ What is the northernmost place you’ve visited before INCM Lapland?”

◉ Your answers Event cities

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◉ Nordkapp in Norway ◉ Bugøynes, Norway

◉ Tromsø

◉ Kaamanen, I guess (during a blizzard) Inari 69°N 27°E

Lofoten Islands

◉ Levi ◉ Kiruna, Sweden ◉ Rovaniemi

ors, Norway

◉ Skellefteå

Oulu 65°N 25,5°E

Östersund, Sweden

◉ Seinäjoki

rway Norway n - SWE

◉ Uppsala ◉ Stockholm

◉ Joensuu

◉ Tampere ◉ Hämeenlinna ◉ Helsinki ◉ Saint Petersburg, Russia ◉ Tallin

◉ (doesn’t Jaraso, Sweden exist)

mark ark mö hagen mark

Klaipeda, Lithuania ◉◉ Nida, Lithuania

◉ Tver, Russia ◉ Moscow

◉ Suceava, Romania

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We saw there were high expectations for INCM Lapland 2017 and asked from all partakers about them, here are a few examples:

“Do next EASAs have to be more and more comfortable and casual or does the hippy-ish way of life play a specific role in EASA spirit?”

“Considering the fact that EASA Lithuania faced serious financial issues due to the debt, it would be a good idea to discuss money-related issues.”

“In Fredericia I really began to be captivated by the ‘spirit’ which seems to connect and drive us all to continue to expand and progress the growth and development of our community and its output. The theme for INCM Lapland of ‘Impact/Intact’ not only resonates with themes I have sought to question through own personal architectural study and practice, but, following my experience in Fredericia, seems to be of critical importance to the sustainable future of EASA more generally. I hope the event will allow us to explore the legacy of EASA both in terms of the impact we leave behind on the community and ‘environment’ after an event has been completed but also how we envision projecting EASA into the future.”

“Food policy for next EASAs, meat as option, vegetarian as the norm, way cheaper and easier to organize.”

“To kindly introduce the new generation of NCs to our circle as there is going to be a lot of them. To re-remind the importance of this position.

Rethinking the concept of ‘consensus’.”

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IT IS ONNN !!!!!!!!!!

THE EVENT

INCM Lapland 2017 took place in Oulu and Inari, on November 17th – 26th, 2017 with the theme Impact/Intact. Over these 10 days we had an intense program that was meant to deepen the understanding of different layers of the theme. It got us thinking what is our impact as a community and a pop-up event, as future professionals, and as individuals. The setup for all this was a small northern town and an even smaller village even further up north. Snow started to fall on the first day of the event and slowly everything became covered with snow, damping the sounds and softening the landscape, creating the best of atmospheres for us discussing, experiencing, having fun and simply being together. Following is a day-by-day visual memoir of those ten unforgettable days.

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N!!!!!! !!!!!!!

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D a y 0 : Th u r s d a y 1 6 t h EASA Hostel

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We introduced the EASA Hostel for INCM since we wanted everyone who had to arrive already earlier or leave late to have a place to stay. The hostel was located in the “Guild House” of Oulu University Architecture Students’ Union, where you could stay for 5 € a night. The helpers as well as first NCs, guests and moderators arrived already a day before the event officially begun. Easians were greeted by a wild bunch of local architecture students dressed in fur and leather for the traditional Barbarian Bachanal.

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Day 1: Friday 17th Arrival Day

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The first snow started to fall on the first day of INCM Lapland. We welcomed people at Oulu University Architecture Students’ guild house in Pikisaari where the EASA Hostel had taken place the previous night. In the evening we had an opening ceremony in the Oulu City Library. After the welcoming words by us organizers, we had a walking tour around designated locations of Lumo Light Festival Oulu that was opened on the very same day. Finally, we walked together three kilometers in the darkness and slush from the Oulu city center to our accommodation in Nallikari. After settling into our small cabins we had a chance to enjoy each others company at the EASA cafÊ that was located in our main event hall Walhalla, some 900 meters from our accommodation.

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Day 2: Saturday 18th Presentation Day

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After breakfast we headed out for the “Shitty City” walking tour. (Oulu has a nickname among the locals – the “Shitty City”.) While snow was pouring down from the sky, we toured around the city and its buildings. After lunch program continued in Walhalla with Impact/Intact discussions, introducing the theme of the event, and afterwards presentations of INCM Madrid 2016, EASA Denmark 2017, and the upcoming SESAM 2018 Ex Nihilo by the Belarusian team. The Spanish showed as their Final Report a documentary The Insights - INCM Madrid 2016 1. Also there were presentations about EASA Wastelands 2012 by one of the organisers Emmi Jääskeläinen and about how it was to be an NC twenty years before by former Finnish NC Juhana Heikonen. After the presentations finished there was a surprise celebration of Joonas’s birthday with the kitchen team preparing lovely cakes for everyone to share together!

1

https://vimeo.com/246815719

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Day 3: Sunday 19th INCM Bidding Day

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The first bidding day started with EASA talks. We divided into smaller groups and discussed about the following topics: NC responsibility and role (including participant selection process, NC continuity and how to promote EASA), EASA archive, publicity, sponsors, architecture student organizations in each country, and the workshop fair, especially how tutors pick participants. After lunch, the Bulgarians presented their bid for INCM Vitosha with the theme Continuity. Even though there was only one bid for INCM 2018, the NCs discussed for a few hours to give some feedback for the organizing team1. The day ended with celebrations at the EASA café in Walhalla with the EASA FM DJ’s playing until morning.

1

Feedback can be found in the “Outcome” section of this report.

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Day 4: Monday 20th Lecture Day

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The day started with the RE:EASA team introducing thoroughly the next EASA in Croatia, its theme and the results of the ITM (Intermediate Tutors Meeting) held in Rijeka for potential tutors a month before. In the afternoon, we all walked together to the city center for Impact/Intact lecture event.

On the way to there was a short moment when we saw the low-lying sun for the first (and only) time during the whole event and everyone started to cheer. The event begun with a cocktail hour at Teatteri Rio in Oulu (that also hosted also a bar). Our guest lecturers Juhani Pallasmaa, Juhana Heikonen and Lars-Erik Mattila held lectures themed around Impact/Intact in an atmospheric theatre.

Following the lectures, we got a little glimpse of traditional Finnish student life. The academic dinner party or “sitsit” is a traditional student gathering held in Finland and Sweden and includes eating, drinking and singing, and this is all done whilst respecting the strict sitsi-rules. As it was forbidden to eat during singing or while someone was having a speech, a warm plate of food might have turned cold by the time you oet to it. The party went as wild as can be expected and so did the afterparty in 45 special with Windows95man setting the unforgettable and shameless tunes for the fiercely dancing crowd. There may have been a pyramid of shots for Leena’s birthday.

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Day 5: Tuesday 21st Wo r k s h o p D ay

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While some people rushed early in the morning for the one day Guerrilla Lighting workshop, the rest of us started our day with an easy-going brunch. In the afternoon, we headed to the city library for sponsor lectures held by Jรถrn Teipel from Outokumpu (Fundamentals on stainless steel for aesthetical architectural applications) and Linda Hirvonen from Graphic Concrete (Make an impact with Graphic Concrete) and presentations of the upcoming Eterotopia event in Sardinia and by the Indian NASA and Latin American CLEA teams. After the lectures we had a chance to see the results of the lighting workshop while we toured around the locations where the workshoppers had designed temporary lightings with portable lighting fixtures. Our cold walking tour ended in the city hall of Oulu for the official welcoming reception by the city of Oulu. The evening continued with a sauna night at the Guild House with the local architecture students.

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D a y 6 : We d n e s d a y 2 2 n d Excursion Day

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Early in the morning we packed everything and everyone into two buses and four cars and started our long trip to Inari. On the way we stopped in Pudasjärvi to explore log buildings and wooden framed windows.

In Rovaniemi we visited Alvar Aalto’s architecture including the city library and the city hall, and – of course – Santa Claus! In the evening, after seeing some northern lights through bus windows we reached Inari, where the temperature was -27 degrees. It took some time to get into our cabins since several of them had to be replaced due to extremely freezing temperatures that had broken the plumbings...

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D a y 7 : Th u r s d a y 2 3 r d EASA Bidding Day 1

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In the morning we headed to our main location in Inari, the Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos, where we first had a tour around the building. For discussions we used the Sámi Parliament Hall, where the excitement could be felt in the air when Romania and Switzerland presented two amazing bids for EASA 2019. We begun with the bidding discussions, and at the end of the day Danijela summed up the different moods created by the proposals tenderly in a poem: “Switzerland is peaceful green with sunny yellow to fire and chocolate, while Romania is mystical grey to black with strong pops of white… In which colors we want to see ourselves next, to collide and make a new one that is ours?”

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Day 8: Friday 24th EASA Bidding Day 2

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EASA bidding discussions continued at Sajos in a calm atmosphere.

Meanwhile, all the bidding teams, including the Bulgarian INCM team took part in a workshop, where they learned ice fishing in a traditional Sámi way.

At one point when we had a break from discussion the moderators told everyone to go out for a massive snowball fight! Local Sámi women got to take some photos of topless and steaming spaniards and frenchmen after the fight. Discussion continued until effortlessly and surprisingly we realised we had reached consensus: EASA 2019 will be held in Switzerland with the theme Tourist! We wrote down feedback to both teams1 and then invited them to join us and announce the result. Voyage Voyage!

After reaching consensus we still continued discussing about EASA related issues and divided into workgroups.

Feedback for both teams can be found in the “Outcome” section of this report.

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Day 9: Saturday 25th Sรกmi Culture Day

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The day started with a visit to the Sámi museum Siida where we got a thorough intoroduction to Sámi culture and history. After lunch we divided into working groups and started discussing EASA related matters, such as NC responsibilities, the website and the theme Impact/ Intact in relation to EASA1. Later in the day local musician and teacher Anna Morottaja gave us a lecture about Sámi culture and performed beautiful singing – yoik and livde. After a traditional Finnish dinner (reindeer stew made with locally produced meat) people had a chance to listen to contemporary joiking at Kaamos Jazz Festival. At the end of the day a local guy we had met a few days earlier at the bar wanted to take us all to the ice of the Lake Inari to grill and to hang out with a reindeer.

He even cut the letters E, A, S, and A out of ice!

1 See “Outcome”

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Day 10: Sundayt 27th Departure Day

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Starting early in the morning, we traveled back to Oulu by bus, while most of the helpers traveled back by car. The EASA Hostel hosted those who had the flight the next day for one more night.

The day after we had an atmospheric last dinner at the Guild House with the last NCs and helpers that were still there, and drank all the leftover Gin.

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THE OUTCOME

INCM Lapland 2017 was documented in photos and a final video by our photographer Alexandra Kononchenko. The photos can be found on EASA Finland’s Facebook page arranged in albums day by day and in high quality on Alexandra’s Flickr account “easa.photo”1. The final video capturing beautifully the mood of the event and a video collage of the photos can be found on EASA Finland’s Vimeo account2 and Alexandra’s Flickr. This Final Report acts as the main document of the event.

1 2

https://www.flickr.com/people/107959684@N04/ – see Albums https://vimeo.com/easafinland

D O C U M E N TAT I O N On the last full day of the event on Saturday 26th we divided into workgroups to discuss and develop EASA related topics, such as NC responsibilities, the website and the theme Impact/Intact in relation to EASA. Following are the summaries and statements from these aforementioned workgroups.

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I M P A C T / I N TA C T ENVIRONMENTAL We have established that there is a great environmental impact caused

by EASA. 500 people are flying to one place followed by the implications of a large community living together. Organising teams of INCM and EASA in recent years have been continually minimising our negative environmental impact. Significantly at INCM 2017 all food was vegetarian and in EASA 2018 there is a large focus on waste and in 2019 the ambition is for workshops to be dismountable. We suggest that each year the organisers take the improvements from the previous year and then propose further environmental actions.

NCs should communicate to their participants the importance of the environmental decisions and raise awareness. The cigarette system1 at INCM is a good example where the importance was understood and nobody dropped their cigarettes. The introduction talk/whole EASA meetings are a good opportunity to promote these as community efforts.

1Empty film canisters functioning as portable ashtrays were handed out at the info point and we passive-aggressively noted about cigarette butts found lying on the ground.

LOCAL We recognise that EASA has an impact on local communities and a greater impact on smaller communities. We often have great ambitions for workshops to make great changes which are often not achieved. There are many examples of past workshops that have had a positive impact and are regularly used, for example Highlight and The Living Boom (both great for teenage drinking) at EASA 2016. Is local impact needed?

Ultimately no, but it is a positive element of EASA. Community based more theoretical workshops may have a greater potential impact working with people and local authorities and organisations, e.g. Foreigner Bodies at EASA 2017. More time can be devoted to people rather than construction.

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CONSTRUCTION WORKSHOPS If we leave something physical it will have an impact, positive or negative.

Workshops at EASA have great potential for positive impact, however ‘failed’ workshops can result in waste. Should we do workshops that do not produce an object of value to society? After discussion it was concluded that we accept there is a value in workshops that explore architectural themes and act as part of our personal education, that might not interact with the locality.

Failed workshops - It is hard to define what is a failure or even if it exists in the EASA context. However, we discussed an undisclosed list of workshops that we considered to have failed in some way, either physically or aesthetically. We consider ‘Frick’ – a pavilion made out of compressed earth blocks – from EASA 2017 is a good example of a workshop that failed, had little environmental impact but was considered a good educational experience. We also established cases where workshops had to be dismantled and removed at a cost due to poor quality, vandalism etc.

What do we do if the final product is ‘bad’? How do we collectively come to this decision? We are able to objectively assess build quality but have a greater problem if the project is simply unattractive!

Is failure preventable? No, but it can be mitigated. EASA Tourist set a great example by requiring unmountable workshops that could leave zero impact in the locality. We could make all projects re-cyclable or have more detailed planning. We suggest that tutors must provide a Plan B for their projects in case of failure. How they may be removed or used in other ways.

PERSONAL We all agree that EASA can have a positive personal impact and so we look critically to the negative personal impacts we have. These include the impact of non-selection. People who have joined EASA and have not been selected for a continuing year can feel personally attacked or simply left out. Not being selected for a workshop can also give participants low self-esteem at the start of the event.

We identify the impact of drinking as one of the last EASA taboos.

Practically drinking and hangovers ruins schedule of workshops, reduce productivity and time across EASA, and participants ultimately loose out.

In terms of events the sheer number of events involving alcohol is large and you feel as though you may loose out if you don’t go. It is possible to make explicitly non-alcoholic events and social spaces for non drinking, e.g. a lounge as an alternative to the bar.

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NC RESPONSIBILITIES & ROLES

TEAM SPIRIT NCs should introduce themes of spirit of EASA before summer workshops by meeting and/or creating Facebook groups or discussions to create a cohesive team with strong spirit. Meetings could be integrated into participant application form and process in order to realise these events.

EASA PROMOTION THROUGHOUT THE YEAR Reunions with previous participants; meetings for each EASA intermediate event (tutor call, participant call, ITM etc.); lectures within faculties. Promoting EASA among students, but also professors and professionals including former EASA participants and tutors. Employing creative events and methods to advertise EASA and inspire students (e.g.

Bulgaria’s EASA week with EASA Breakfast and EASA Sleepover).

Promotion of EASA throughout the year by means of Facebook pages and email to all universities. It is important that all aspects of EASA are communicated and that promotional material is shared on all media platforms available relating other organisations, particularly NASA and CLEA, but also satellite events including SESAMs and others.

NC AS A SOCIAL MEDIA AMBASSADOR & ADMIN Reposting posts by organizing teams on social media is crucial to ensure to reach the maximum amount of people.

NC AS A PILLAR FOR EASA NCs are the key communication link between organisers and participants.

A “365 days strong network” requires communication between organizers and NCs so that from Day 0 everybody is up to date with everything.

This should be done not just through formal bulletins but also through social media, polls, and open discussions (skype?). NCs should be active in communicating with organisers, to establish continuity. There could be an “NC pack” being released at the same time as the “Tutor pack”.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT NCs should support participants and act as mediators between the participant and the university (official letter of acceptance into EASA) to facilitate the process of obtaining funds. If funding is provided, NCs should make it clear that EASA does not come cheap and should still be taken seriously.

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SELECTION PROCESS BEFORE EASA Participant selection should be as transparent as possible, e.g. the proposals/posters that have been sent should all be published on the national Facebook pages/future website. If possible participants should be chosen from different schools in order to expand the community.

NCs should pick participants that would bring something positive to community, that’s why interviews are crucial. Teams should prioritise architecture students, suggest to the ‘non-architect’ applicants for EASA to apply as tutors. Past NCs could be involved or consulted in the selection process.

Useful for organisers from each year to suggest a competition method as was done in Lithuania. However other methods could also be used to avoid selection being based solely on talent; possibly having interviews, considering those who approach NCs and show enthusiasm etc.

Exhibition of works produced by selected participants on EASA would be a motivation to produce better work but also a nice thing to do for those who worked hard to be involved in EASA. INCM could be used as a platform to “check” NCs on their selection process of that year. This would be useful for other NCs to point out flaws but also to learn of other methods that could be more appropriate for their own countries. This could be done in the form of a quick report or presentation. It could be needed to create an open channel through which students can contact organisers directly if they are unhappy with the way the NCs of their country are handling the selection process.

NC AS A LINK TO WORKSHOP SELECTION PROCESS Hierarchy should be removed so that the message is clear that all workshops are equal – not as a first or second choice. ‘First comes first served’ for sign ups could create a stressful environment that is not necessary. Sign up lists should be more discrete, e.g. a bowl where we put our names on folded paper, giving the opportunity to personalise your application. Note by a tutor: it is important to create a cross section of nationalities, experiences with EASA (first timers, dinos etc), age, genders etc.

For the workshop fair, tutors and NCs should work more together in order to help the participants to find their workshop. A poll could be made before EASA to see what workshops are more popular and therefore help participants to find workshops that have more room left. The selection of participants should not be only on names or faces but could be more formal, e.g. writing a small text to present themselves. Number of choices could be expanded.

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NC CONTINUITY NCs should create a system, a guideline, so that future NCs will have a clear reference point. An NC pack could be created by each country to assure the continuity of knowledge and process. This could include an informal handover contract with NC responsibilities to make oneself aware of the commitment expected in such a role. Choosing a new NC should also be as transparent as possible and if possible the decision should not rely only on the two existing NCs but also consider the point of view of older participants or NCs. Overlapping periods for NCs is important. Can NCs as a collective override an NCs position, e.g. if an NC had kept the position for too long and there is a consensus that a new NC should be chosen?

REPORT A short and simple report on methods used by each country to reach out to potential participants could be presented at future INCMs in order to continue to improve how we reach out to new participants.

(NCs should try to connect more with universities to make EASA count as a summer school so that students could get academic credits for it) – It’s an option/possibility but not what EASA is built on. If participants wish to pursue this then it is supported but not directed by NCs.

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W E B S I T E W O R K G R O U P S TAT E M E N T We see a lot of potential in the EASA Website, but a lot of challenges lie ahead. The first website was made in 1996, almost as old as Google itself.

In spite of the numerous attempts and efforts of the past years, a website still does not exist in any developed form. This is therefore a ​systemic organisational issue​. The most important concern is around continuity​of development and ​ongoing​ management.

Other infrastructural issues exist i.e. a central ​server​, ​management ​and ​ storage​​systems,​which require ongoing funds​. We ​​ also have to ask the fundamental question of ​what the purpose of the website is​ and ​what impact the website will have​on our community.​​We discussed ways on how to give a new clarity of information to participants, governmental organisations and sponsors. This website would provide a platform for other web activity, such as other national EASA websites, the future EASA magazine, INCM minutes, final reports, online publications and visual media. The website would also showcase the breadth and depth of the work of the community.

The website would act as a tool to allow longer term projects to develop and emerge. By having a dedicated team working on the project, in the form of a website working group, we will likely find more progress achieved, in a much shorter time period. The website will act as a catalyst to enable more fluent communication and continuity within the EASA network. Information exchange will be accelerated. It is envisaged that the members of the working group will have a trusted autonomy over development of the same website. A structure will be set in place similar to the NC system, ensuring an overlap of changing teams. The results of the working group will be discussed and presented to the community during EASA events.

The aim of the working group is to ​research all potential possibilities​ , including f​ unding​ and to c ​ reate a framework for the initiation and maintenance of the website​. The website working group will be closely interlinked to the other working groups, as well as past, present and future organisers. We hope you support us in this endeavour and join us if interested. ◦ This statement was written by the website working group during INCM Lapland 2017. It was later presented the the rest of the NCs present.

Following this presentation the consensus was reached to empower the workgroup to have decision making autonomy to develop the website and digital platforms. It was also agreed that progress will be reviewed

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every three months by the NCs to heighten the level of output and clarify further consensus on key decisions. It is envisaged that this will happen informally over the EASA NCs Facebook group.

Developing a Brief 1. Development methodology We discussed the development methodology within the working group.

Whereas one camp was for a traditional, or waterfall development methodology; Developing it all first and launching at once. The other camp opted towards a contemporary, agile development methodology, launching early and launching often thereafter in bitesize bits. They both have their flaws, the former has the potential to overdevelop functions that may have a high cost but a low impact, and a high risk of failure if assumptions have been made and /or funding is not secured. The latter may look naive in the initial stages, but as a minimum viable product can be launched easily, it generally optimises itself economically and in terms of functionality. Bursting assumptions over time the development is more manageable in incremental ‘sprints’. This is generally the approach most modern web and software development services take.

2. Functions In INCM we discussed the desired functions of the website. The consensus was reached that the ultimate decisions can be made with Autonomy by the Workgroup.

3. Overview All of the functions raised are interesting, but over development of functionality can become nightmarish. If we evaluate the functions critically, In the initial stages at least, we can retain a clarity of core use.

The famous Unix aphorism is: write programs that do one thing and do it well. We may be able to use pre-exising sites intelligently to deliver the additional functions in the beginning.

4. Categories In terms of information processed. The requests by the community can be organised as having either Static or Dynamic functions. Information storage differs in both cases, whereas Static is set, Dynamic information is subject to change and requires a higher degree of bespoke development.

Static websites are useful for the dispersal of information, and can be developed using most pre-existing content management systems such as wordpress, squarespace etc. They still reach a breadth of people. However, sites with capacity for dynamic content are richer and have higher user engagement. They retain people long term and this brings a depth of use. However dynamic web applications require back end programming knowledge to develop and maintain. It is easier to develop in an open source, collaborative way here, using systems such as Github etc. but

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some literacy is required. Although they may be plausible on some more approachable CMS systems such as Joomla!. A collaborative in-house team or an outsourced person would be required to undertake the development of dynamic functions.

A: Static information: Generally the lack of static information about easa was the cause of frustration for many easians at the INCM. The inability to show sponsors a central site signified a lack of legitimacy of the organisation, impacting their lives negatively when organising events. The lack of information was also voiced as a reason some participants were confused or unhappy with the event. The event did not meet or resonate with their expectations.

-General Information about EASA.

Briefing new participants. Place for information for participants.

-Outlining aims, missions and values to all involved.

-Contact information for the National Contacts. (somewhat dynamic)

-A central repository of information for sponsors. Dossier for the sponsorship.

-Budgetary information and a repository for yearly reports.

Impact.

-Central node to link into other websites.

B: Dynamic functions: EASA is dynamic, it is important the information flow reflects this. The suggested dynamic portals run parallel to the structure of EASA, showing events etc. as-well as merging platforms to reflect and reinforce the acts of workgroups such as archive and EASA magazine.

-Archive

Large, dynamic Archive system folders all information

of past and present EASAs for historical reference.

-News Newsletter.

EASAgram.

Blog, newsprint and personal publications.

-Hospitality EASA couchsurfing.

Database of where people are working.

Opportunities/jobs board.

-Shop & Funding EASA memorabilia.

EASA alumni – a PayPal on a website.

Sponsorship system: European funds. Corporate social responsibility.

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-Media

Listen to EASA FM online radio.

Space to share images/videos.

EASA TV. Umbrella.

-Sign In

Access to internal EASA documents.

EASA user profiles.

A microblog system for workshops and events.

A ​R | W​​B Archive tasks:

-Collecting/finding documents

-Digitising - scanning

-Organisation of content (folder system)

-Sharing information:

1. How is this achieved? ◦ During event

- exhibitions, presentations, talks/discussions,

through other media workshops (EASA magazine etc.) ◦ Throughout the rest of the year - website

2. What is shared? ◦ Past events – archive tab

Analysis & Writing – articles, opinion & ◦ experience pieces

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Website tasks:

-Setting up a framework

What do we need the website for?

Who is going to be looking at it?

-Potential participants -Sponsors -Existing community -Bidding teams -NCs -Alumni -General public

-What elements are important for the various

different people? Who is going to be looking f or/at what?

-Organising content to be uploaded

Standard template folder system -Research

servers, hosting, funding

-UX designer

how to navigate around the website

-Graphic Designer

what does the website look like?

-Funding

how to fund? And then start doing it.

-Programming

Writing code, building dynamic elements (possibly outsourced) How are the archive and the website linked?

The way in which the archive is organised will act as a basis for how the website is structured. The website will become a platform for how the archive is shared.

Structure/Framework: It is necessary to create one centralised point online. The core site should be set up as a simple webpage hosted by square space (or other similar), low threshold access, easily updatable information, collective responsibility to ensure data is correct.

The navigation bar will have different sections which are either static and most likely hosted on the same server or else more complicated dynamic

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elements which are hosted on separate servers.

This allows for a slow launch and development other time. If one part isn’t working it can be removed and re-evaluated. While this means that there isn’t a single point of failure, it is important to keep in mind that if things like FM, TV and Umbrella set up a separate website, the domain for this will have to be upheld. However the main advantage of this method is that the core website will be a non-developer-led initial touch-point (easy to maintain) and then there will be links to more sophisticated sites which host more dynamic content.

Once a framework for the website is set up, it is necessary to begin collecting and organising the data which will populate the different web pages. The main link between the archive and website at the moment is organising what content from the archive is needed Who does what?

One of the main reasons that no one has managed to build a comprehensive website yet is because of the sheer volume of information that exists and the daunting task of organising this all. As a result, past solutions have been things like the EASA index, which merely had links to dead domains of past events.

As a means to begin, here is a rough outline plan of the different elements of the website (keep in mind this is just a first run at it to get the ball moving and to put suggestions into something visual): There are a few of these which will be almost totally static and once set up won’t need much maintenance. These are things that I believe the archive can start collecting info for, begin writing text and gathering images etc. This will also give us the opportunity to have a “soft” launch.

So things like the ‘​home’, ’about’, ‘network’ and ‘contact’​ sections can be set up first. Alongside that, we can also be working on the content for the archive section. Making a standard template folder system, obviously there will be things that are different in each year, but in general, we would collect and organise the data for the headlines that are outlined in the diagram.

As some member of the website workgroup are more experienced with web design and development, they will take the lead on the more dynamic parts. So while the archive team is working on the contents and navigation of the more static elements, it gives the website workgroup the opportunity to focus on the other more complicated functions.

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EASA WEBSITE - T

N

HOME

S al

ABOUT

NETWORK

CURRENT

WHAT What is EASA?

NCs

LINK Portal to current organisers website - EASA - INCM - SESAM

WHY Why did EASA start?

WHO Who is involved?

HOW How does EASA work?

INCM TUTORs SESAM GUIDE SPIRIT

2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999

1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981

MEDIA WORKSHOPS Umbrella Easa TV Easa FM

INCM

WHERE/WHY Location of event History/info Summary of proposal

WHERE/WHY Location of event Proposal/goals

HOW Sponsors WHAT Workshops Lectures Events

- Name - Tutors - Poster - Description - Participants - Prior - Process - Product

MEDIA

GALLERY Photo highlights Summary videos

EASA

WHO Organisers

WHO Organisers Bidding Teams HOW Sponsors WHAT Bidding Proposals EASA Talks Lectures Events Minutes

CURRENT

enough information and collected material exists for a “soft” launch

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ARCHIVE

NEXT

over time more info and functions will be

TIMELINE

s s

NEWS

SPONSORS

SHOP

CONTACT

SIGN IN

EASAGRAM

PRESENT

NCs

NEWSLETTER

PAST Dossier

EASA MEMORABILIA

NCs/ ORGANISERS access to internal documents

BLOG arcitles personal publications

CURRENT ORGANISERS

TUTORS brainstorm platform

FORUM platform to share work/discussions PRESS Published work

ormation e added

SESAM WHERE/WHY WHO HOW WHAT

FUTURE

more complicated elements which require more work will take longer to develop

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F E E D B AC K TO B I D D I N G T E A M S There were three bidding teams at INCM Lapland 2017: Bulgaria for INCM 2018 and Romania and Switzerland for EASA 2019. Through consensus, the community decided to give responsibilities of organizing future EASA events for the teams behind INCM Vitosha 2018 in Bulgaria and EASA Tourist 2019 in Switzerland. Following is the feedback given to all the three teams after the bidding discussions.

INCM Vitosha 2018 Bulgaria The team is strong and we truly appreciate the 2nd attempt to bid!

(Continuity in action.) The proposal is well prepared with a highly philosophical approach. It is impressing the team worked on the proposal all year long. Continuity is a very current theme and the idea of a magazine is attractive. We believe that the event will affect the idea of INCM and there is a strong connection with EASA 2018. The relation between individual and community is strongly linked to the EASA network. Focusing on continuity unveils the great potential we have as a network, adding value to it. Can you manage to find a connection between reinventing and continuity? We loved the mountain and the scenery of the landscape! Great that there is silence in program, concept and space. Walking in the forest will be good for the community.

EASA Underground 2019 Romania The proposal has a very strong philosophy of ideas. Logistic issues, budget and sites are organized and well thought through. There would be strong impact on local community due to city size and status. Idea of working underground is experimental. An innovative proposal. We liked the intention to analyse the city and site through the theme Underground/Curiosity. There is potential for a variety of workshops. The team is very strong, involving the extended network of Easians in the country. Imaginative video. The salt mine is a very intriguing spot for EASA and a relevant location regarding the topic of rethinking post-industrial heritage. There is a lot of potential in the idea of the underground, but the idea is not connected on all levels, with incoherence of the theme and its connection to the site and workshops.

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EASA Tourist 2019 Switzerland We found the topic very relevant and educational with three different levels: global, local, and EASA. We liked the idea of two locations and thought the second location up on the mountain would bring people together. The whole event as a provocation questions the role of Easians. There’s a strong focus on process. The proposed “Hannibal day” may strengthen the community by the movement as a common act.

Movability would create a new framework for workshops. Construction workshops would have an afterlife, which could result into a new kind of external impact. The process based theme also encourages theoretical workshops and enforces concern of lifecycle of workshops, exploring the ephemerality of EASA. It could turn tourists into travelers. We could maybe impact on tourist community rather than local community, by creating strategies for tourism and local lifestyle. Our main concerns were logistical challenges, including the Hannibal day as a second deadline for the workshops, and the limitations arising from the framework and if it would affect the scale of workshops due to transportation. There was a lack of communication in the presentation on the positive impact of tourism. Who are going to use the installations made during EASA in the end?

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OF THE SELECTION PROCESS

An open letter to the EASA community Every year the selection process occurs, guided in each country by its respective National Contacts. The organising team provides the subject for the year’s Assembly, and there is a general idea for the task required to apply as a participant, which can be used and re-interpreted as the NCs find fit.

The NCs not only have total control over who gets picked to represent their assigned country, following whichever criteria they choose, but they also get to decide specifically who takes their place, with no need for debate or disclosed justification.

Even though we do not discuss this commonly and openly, being a participant in EASA is a privilege reserved for a few lucky individuals amongst everyone who is a student of architecture (or not) in Europe. (The non-European teams follow their own specific rules for applying, and are not the subject of this consideration). Many participants come knowing they will not be allowed back next year while others know it’s quite likely they will be there, even if they are no longer students. Statements like these can be uncomfortable, and seem to be part of the taboo that is the Selection Process.

Of course, with such privilege should come a sense of responsibility. You are part of an elite, and elites are meant to be questioned by anyone who values democracy, and finds things like favouritism and nepotism undesirable.

So I ask you, participant: – Why are you here in EASA, and not any other architecture student from your country? For most, the answer is simple. – My NCs picked me. That is a perfectly acceptable answer, blunt as it is. But then the question shifts.

– You, National Contact. Why did you choose that participant? Why do you get to decide? Who picked you to be NC? All the responsibility of who gets the privilege of being part of our very closed and cherished community falls over you, although the criteria for your authority is unclear.

Besides the NCs and their unsupervised power, one could question the constitution of the teams themselves. Agreed that there must be some standard number of team members (currently seven), but why does that have to be static and blindly distributed? It seems unfair that this system does not take into account any factor to justify team sizes, and it could be questioned in endless ways. Here are some obvious examples:

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Germany has more than 82 million people, while Malta has 425000 people. Both get seven members on their team.

Portugal has over 20 architecture schools, while Finland has 3. Both get seven members each.

The United Kingdom has separate teams for their Devolutions, with seven members for N. Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales, but all the 16 German states only get one team of seven members, as do the 17 much more autonomous Communities of Spain. That’s 21 extra people for one country.

Each of the 10 countries ‘commonly referred to’ as Balkans gets a team of seven, even though their combined population is smaller than Italy’s by 10 million. This means 70 versus 7 members, even if the latter has more architecture students than any other country, proportionally to its population.

It seems thoughtless and neglectful that the privilege of being included in EASA has to depend so much on your country of origin, and that this distribution, along with the accompanying NC system, has been kept unquestioned for so long. I address you all hoping to see that change.

Down with the taboo.

Bruno M. C. Pereira Oulu, 16th of November, 2017

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NC ROLE

Personal thoughts and experiences of being the “NC”,

by Petronela Schredlova Why “NC” in inverted commas? I’m not a so called NC and I have never been. I also never had a feeling that I need to be. It’s just this imaginary post of someone who takes responsibility and who very much cares about EASA. I take responsibilities and I care about EASA. My NCs showed me they are my friends even when we didn’t know each other. Even before EASA even begun. They were and are the role models we are constantly talking about. I was ready for my first EASA because I trusted them and our whole team got great support from them to confront all the 500 other people we didn’t know. I was so enthusiastic about it I was willing to continue, to help them, with EASA info day, with choosing participants, with their personal lives. And much more importantly, they welcomed my help. I feel like part of it all and I want to thank them very much for trusting me!

Our role as people that care about EASA is to bring in people that are ready, to ask the right questions. Choosing participants is the ultimate responsibility of us involved in EASA, to make them curious about it. There is always a better chance to bring people that care if you are aware of your power and responsibility. The NC’s responsibility is to observe and to think of the criterias that will reveal as much as you need to make the right decisions. Even better by personal experiences and further motivation. If the people prove themselves that they might be huge contribution even three years in a row, let them. There is nothing worse than to leave the person that cares so much out because of the rules.

I would compare it to the apple, very tasty, crunchy, juicy apple. I will give it to you to have a bite and you like the apple very much, but then I’d take it from you without really showing you how the apple tree was planted.

About choosing the diversity by universities. Make EASA grow more, be widespread and farther and be presented by individuals. I would rather have a strong core of people closer to me and my university, hometown that really get what EASA means and that want to help me with everything I cannot handle myself. To try to show them at home what we have experienced and use it – how is one community helping another community, sharing, trusting and even relaxing, with no need for EASA platform. There is nothing worse than to choose participants just because they are from different universities and not to take them the next time, because there are so many people applying. We have so much bigger impact to the wider world when we are together and not split apart. Isn’t that the reason why we gather?

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The ultimate question that we all ask is when will EASA set us free? The answer is hidden into its simplest thought. You have to form your own EASA wherever you go. Whatever you do. Be open to people that you don’t know. Cooperate, trust and create amazing stuff even without those two weeks of workshops. There is no point for EASA to be bigger in numbers of participants, but there is point of EASA to grow by itself by the number of little EASA’s all over the world. If you want to become a true NC, try to figure out what does “NC” really stand for or if you really need this post to manage stuff around EASA. Even if just one “NC” will feel little bit more motivated about EASA, I will be the happiest person on Earth. Thank you guys all for asking the right questions and leading me closer to understand myself. You have a very big power in your hands.

Petronela Schredlova

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A F T E R M AT H

W H AT W E L E A R N E D PROS AND CONS OF DUAL LOCATION It was important for us to extend our theme to the locations. The city of Oulu and the municipality of Inari made a beautiful combination as the venues for the event. In the city you see and feel the impact of human actions everywhere and in Inari you can sense the importance of intact nature. In a way, both are very important: If we people live close to each other in the cities there will be more intact nature left.

As changing the location during the event was really essential in creating the experience we wanted to give to underline the theme of our event, we realized that it also created a lot of additional stress.

For us the two locations meant a lot of work. It was worthwhile but it really pushed us to the limits. The distance between the locations was some eight hours by car and doing that partly ourselves wasn’t the best idea. To get everyone safely transported, drivers need their rest to be able to focus on driving. After working intensive and long days, stressed and not sleeping that much, transportation should be arranged with outside help rather than driving yourself. For changing locations we recommend to use as much outside help as possible.

Changing locations also means that you have to manage all the food, waste, logistics, info point, accommodation, venues for talks, café and other events for both locations – twice the amount of work! It takes a lot of time and energy. Also, we had to pack the whole event into buses and set things up again. Naturally, changing locations also meant we needed to clean two places. In a way though, it made cleaning very efficient because the time we had for cleaning was very limited.

For the future organizers we want to say that choosing the path of pilgrimage and changing the location during the event will create a lot of work and hassle. When planning an event with two locations, the best advice is to really weigh the pros and cons and think if moving is really worth all the work. Do the two locations serve an important purpose in the event? Is it essential to the theme and overall idea? For us it meant a lot and in the end we are happy about it but there were times we were really exhausted with it. We survived but we’re not suggesting it as the first option for future hosts. In the end, having two locations also increases the budget so put effort into collecting funding, get sponsors and supporters. Money will make your life easier!

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DURING THE EVENT A secret behind EASA events is that although you want to make them look as official as possible from the outside, you aim to make them feel as unofficial as possible on the inside for those taking part in it. Before the event began, all of us tried to think of all the possible ways the event might go. But when the event started, everything we had had in our minds for the past year became reality. At that moment, we no longer needed to think about it since it was there right before our eyes!

Yet, nothing had really prepared us for the intensity of the event. We had to sacrifice sleep, taking part in the event ourselves and even personal relations for organising the event as well as we could. Afterwards it is easy to point out the one big failure we had as organizers: we had only one meeting together during the event, on the last evening. We gathered to think about the things that had gone wrong for us organisers, and decided then to share our thoughts with everyone else. We did this because we wanted to show the community how we felt after the event, for transparency and to help future organisers to avoid our mistakes. We think organising an event should not be a sacrifice for anyone involved.

Following is a summary (thank you Hristina for sharing your notes!) of what we as organisers had to learn the hard way. ◦ All the general teams like kitchen, info point etc. were running and working but at the same time we had no idea how each of us was holding up. We had long distances between the venues and didn’t discuss how we are delivering the work which is why all of us had to manage our tasks “on our own”. The lack of communication created a lot of extra stress because each of us was working solo, making the same mistakes as the others. We ended up with everyone doing far too long shifts since we didn’t have enough support from each other during the event. For example, coordinating the move from Oulu to Inari was only vaguely planned beforehand, but details that we could not talk through before the event were not discussed together during the move and that is why we ended up stressing the same problems individually. In EASA things tend to sort out always but communicating makes things run smoother and lowers the stress levels tenfold.

We suggest future organisers to have meetings with the whole organising team every day (or at least every other day), without meetings and proper communication things get easily fucked up. Sleeping together in the same space might make things easier, especially for the sake of communication and the sense of organising the event together as a team.

Manage slots in the schedule when you meet during the event. Inform and update each other about everything possible. Get a portable charger for your phone, you need to be available at all times throughout the event.

(If you need a rest, tell that to others so they know not to disturb you.) Do everything you can beforehand. Make sure you know who is responsible for which area and who to address your questions to. All the organisers

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will be busy and (at least slightly) stressed throughout the event so it’s better not to bother each other with additional stress they don’t need to know about. If someone asks you to do something that you didn’t have to, just do it. Be self-initiative and as flexible as you can. Be careful not to blame each other for things that don’t go well. Stay positive: positivity is contageous, but so is negativity; you decide which way you want to go.

Trust your team and respect the work of others. The events are done by everyone involved, not by one individual. They are done by, and for, “we”, not “I”.

Too long shifts played a huge role in our lack of communication. Soon after the event began, we realized we would have needed more helpers.

Helpers really make the event possible, and to give a pleasant experience also for the helpers requires that there are enough people to share the workload. It’s hard to estimate the needed amount of helpers but it’s better to get too many than not enough. Helpers have to arrive a few days earlier, since there needs to be a proper introduction to the event, locations etc. with all the helpers present, before the event has started yet. Make helper lists early and make them fixed; give helpers the shifts early and if they want to change shifts there is time to manage this. There should not be any helpers from bidding teams since they will be too busy preparing for their presentations. We think it would be good to have a helper who is responsible for other helpers and be the communication link between helpers and organizers. Keeping in mind that helpers are paying just to be able to help, it’s nice to make it possible for them to enjoy the event as well. Still, the helpers should also be told they will not be able to participate in everything.

Sharing the work is essential but it is good to remember that the different tasks in organizational work create a very different experience of the event. While the person running the day-to-day programme gets to participate in the event, others like the kitchen team are constantly in the “backstage”. It would be a much more enjoyable event to all of the organisers if everyone could have a chance to attend and know what is happening in the actual event. Any of the organisers should not be in the role of an NC during the event they are running, there simply isn’t time for that!

It was ideal to have two people in charge of for example the kitchen so they could consult each other and share their worries easily. We externalised things we could and got the food prepared elsewhere and brought to us since the organisers in charge of food were always in kitchen. For preparing food for such a big amount of people you need a big kitchen and a fridge room, and need other places for cleaning dishes than the toilet because it doesn’t really work. Having a separate person to do all the graphic design and social media design was really helpful for us. Remember to reserve time for the graphic design tasks (they can easily take several weeks) and also for the printing of e.g. Welcome Packs.

About logistics, you really have to think well through who will be where and do what! We had a lot of moments when things took way longer

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than expected and organisers were not present when needed. Think about who will rest and when, especially if someone needs to drive a long distance (like 550 kilometres from Oulu to Inari) the next day. Never underestimate the importance of rest. The logistics need to be planned really well, especially if the distances are long and/or you have two locations for the event. In any case, you will most probably need a lot of cars. The earlier you can get to prepare the spaces you are using during the event the better. It takes time to bring in stuff and then to organise and decorate the space, it’s better if you can do this well before the event starts. We recommend planning events so that everything is in walking distance.

Some words of advice about scheduling: You have to be always on time because if you’re not, others most certainly won’t be. Make a loose schedule: say one time but actually start a bit later. (Everything at INCM Lapland planned to happen half an hour later than in the schedule we gave the NCs.) This way you don’t keep others like lecturers waiting in vain for everyone to arrive. Help the participants to be on time, especially in the mornings. Think of how many parties you actually need.

The programme we had set was a bit too ambitious. We were super enthusiastic to offer lots of experiences to the participants with versatile settings for events. Yet, in the end, it may have been too much. We were too optimistic with the schedule and didn’t realize the importance of free time in the programme. It is fine to keep things simple and trust that the amazing EASA spirit will always create additional programme. (Make sure to have free time also for the organisers!) It is good to show your country and culture(s), but don’t try to fit everything in ten days. Just focus on the basics and don’t get distracted from what the event is actually about – discussions. People are happy just to see each other. After all, it’s not just an event: it is a community; it is a network; it is discussion; it is all about the people.

All EASA events are organized by young students and architects, not professionals. Show this to everyone (for example through community meetings) so they don’t expect too much from you. While organizing an EASA event, keep in mind you are surrounded by a family of kind people, ready to help the best they can, whenever needed. The whole community is built on trust. And while taking part in events, remember they are organised by young adults doing something like this for the first time. If they seem stressed, a friendly hug or a few friendly words are worth gold.

AFTER THE EVENT We believe the theme Impact/Intact was relevant at that moment and that we managed to implement it on different layers of the event. It has been delightful to hear from the feedback we gained that the theme has provoked discussions and actions also after the event. We are really hoping that the ideas and discussion INCM Lapland aroused will live in the minds of Easians in the future. The continuity in the themes of

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post-INCM-Lapland EASA events is clear. RE:EASA, INCM Vitosha with the theme Continuity, and EASA Tourist have all implemented the theme Impact/Intact as a layer in the event. We are really happy for this continuity since it means that the theme under which the EASA community trusted us to host the event was needed to be discussed.

Since the focus of INCM is in EASA community, our impact on local communities was not significant. Still, 122 open-minded architecture students had, at least temporarily, a huge impact on the habitants of the little town of Inari. Also, the lecture series we organized in Oulu in collaboration with Oulu School of Architecture was well received and considered as a special event among local architecture students and architects. ◦ After the event we needed to take some time and get distance from everything that had happened during INCM. It was only after RE:EASA when we started working on the Final Report and talking about EASA in general again. As a whole, our team has a lot of EASA experience so we wanted to share some of our general thoughts with the community.

EASA as a community has the ability to change lives. The impact of being part of this open minded group of creative architecture students who share same values with you can have a huge impact on one’s way of understanding architecture and life. But, to be able to experience the love of the community means that one has to feel like they are a part of it. For the people who are coming to EASA for the first time it can be hard to feel the love of the community when older Easians are greeting each other with hugs and kisses right from arrival. One might need some time to get used to the new environment.

It’s not so easy for everyone to open up and start meeting new people right away. This is why we think it would be beneficial for EASA to think of how everybody could be taken as a part of the community right from the start. In the beginning of the summer assembly it would be helpful if all the NCs would spend time with their participants and introduce them to older Easians. That way the links between old and new Easians would be created and the first-timers would get an easier start in getting into the EASA community. Welcoming the fresh Easians to the community is incredibly important in maintaining the community’s positive atmosphere in the future.

Another idea we came up with was to introduce a concept of EASA speed dating where old and new Easians could meet in a slightly more organized fashion during an evening program at the bar. Also, having friendship countries where two countries are randomly made to do something together could mix the Easians and help make the first timers once again feel more included in the community.

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Partying and the use of alcohol in EASA events was discussed during INCM Lapland, and we ended up discussing this also with our organizing team. A bit less partying, a bit less drinking would most likely have a positive effect on the results of workshops and that way on the experience of EASA as well. Perhaps we could have some organised evening programs that don’t have to do with alcohol? Maybe it is not necessary that the bar is open every day?

In INCM Lapland we made the decision to serve vegetarian food for everyone. Vegetarian food was a natural choice for us since it addresses our theme by having lower environmental impact as a diet. In addition we found other positive reasons to implement vegetarian diet for EASA events: it saves a lot of hassle to serve vegetarian or in the best case vegan food, instead of catering to each diet separately (omnivore, vegetarian, vegan, gluten free…). We recommend that future organisers take a serious moment to think of the diets of Easians. We are hoping for more vegetarian EASA events in the future for the sake of health, climate and most importantly to make the organisational work easier.

We also discussed about how the participants are chosen. We think it is very important that as many new people are introduced to EASA as possible. It is a problem if same participants are chosen year after year just because they happen to know about EASA. Promoting EASA to new people should be one of the main tasks for NCs. For the last few years EASA presentations have been held in all of the three architecture schools and an open call for participants is sent to every architecture student in Finland via email. People who are applying to EASA for the first time are priority for participants, and that way old Easians are encouraged to apply to EASA as tutors, helpers or guests. This is a good way for people who want to be more involved to take gradually more responsibility at EASA events, leading to a stronger community.

It also helps to engage the newcomers to EASA habits, since possible helpers/tutors/guest have more experience. They can also help their NCs by sharing their responsibilities.

A practical idea to share information in EASA. We think that if some kind of online platform is the main information channel in an EASA event, the organizers should provide free Wi-Fi or local SIM cards for everyone. Since it is from our experience pretty difficult and expensive to provide proper internet connection for such a big amount of people we got up with an idea of the ”continuing infoboard”. That would be a long infoboard where new info is added in cronological order from the left towards the right side of the board. That way everyone could see with one glance if there is any new info.

EASA is a community and the main principles of EASA should be available for everyone, whether or not you are an NC. That is why we think EASA Guide should be delivered for every Easian at the time when informing they have been chosen to participate at an EASA event.

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FEEDBACK

“INCM Lapland was a soft, intimate, and subtle experience created by kind souls who provided the setting for a unique experience. A notable accomplishment among many others was bringing back or introducing (lost) countries. No country left behind! The program was intense, more free time for contemplation and informal discussions could be of use.

Memorable moments include sitting with friends and a glass at a table in a decadent theatre among a roomful of eager architecture students, listening to Juhani Pallasmaa speak about architectural experience in the dark, or driving through snowy nowhere under a sky of everything, or the overall ‘good vibrations’. Plus of course the guild house, ‘sitsit’, cocktail dinner party, Aalto everywhere, the colours of Sámi, DJ Windows95man, reindeers, saunas, northern lights, endless whiteness, a few birthdays, nonstop kitchen crew and lots of pulled oats!”

“A big thanks to all the organisers who made it possible for all of us to to travel north of the Arctic Circle and discover Lapland. A big thanks to all the helpers who made this event possible. A big thanks for all the NCs who managed to make this INCM a model for INCM’s for productivity, dialogue, and collective decision-making. I hope you enjoyed our discussions! From the team of us moderators I can say it was an honour for us to be there with all of you! Lots of love.”

“It would make sense to have all EASA events fully vegan. As an omnivore I didn’t mind eating vegan or vegetarian food for the whole event, since the food was so good overall. It would make preparing the food so much simpler when you didn’t have to prepare so many different options.”

“Thank you EASA Finland for organising a perfect INCM, and discovering us all your beautiful country, I’d never have thought that -15º could actually feel warm. Thank you NCs and moderators for making me feel proud to be a part of the most tolerant, productive and inspiring group of people and for making reaching a consensus between 100 people look easy.”

“That pathetic moment when you are back home, you go to the swimming pool and there’s ‘What Is Love’ playing on speakers. Then you enter to Finnish sauna, and you realize how your life and the angle you see the world has changed, and how it’s empty now without you all. You are the love!”

“To all 151 people in this group. To the mysterious community, I knew nothing about… I wanted to say how I was thankful to join you. How I was scared to jump on the train after it’s departure. I wanted to say thank you, for organizing and sharing with my small proud country this event.”

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“Dear EASA family! It was a special INCM with special people and in a special place. Thank you heroic organizers for the opportunity to visit the mystical north, all the bidding teams for making EASA great over and over again, moderators and helpers for making it work and everyone for all the fun, drinks and dancing we had!”

“Thank you so much for this INCM. It was mystic, kind and like a true fairytale (like the night before Christmas). Thank you for being the best host and never showing the inside that may not have been all that smooth for you. Like we say in Russia the best ballerinas are the ones that don’t show how hard the work there is behind a light and beautiful dance.”

“10 days spent in the north of Finland, all-day discussions with great moderators, participants and organizers, amazing energy, unrepeatable bidding proposals of Bulgaria, Switzerland and Romania, saunas, northern lights, meeting Santa Claus, (academic) parties, long-deep conversations, reindeer visits, amazing landscapes and architecture, local people who showed us the magic of living in the northernmost parts of the world, and every single person I met and every single second I spent there taught me that being an architect doesn’t mean just designing, and that through the life we should not forget how big impact do we have on the environment, society and ourselves, and that only through the feeling of communion and love we can keep intact sense of being human.”

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LINKS

Final Video https://www.flickr.com/photos/107959684@N04/29093863137/in/ album-72157700384841302/ Photo Video https://vimeo.com/244534542 https://www.flickr.com/photos/107959684@N04/44031227381/in/album-72157700384841302/

Bidding Video https://vimeo.com/187214113 how to dress to INCM Lapland 2017 https://vimeo.com/242268577 Alexandra Kononchenko’s photos https://www.flickr.com/photos/107959684@N04/albums/72157689802023594 Website https://joonasparviainen.wixsite.com/incmlapland2017 Info Letters https://joonasparviainen.wixsite.com/incmlapland2017/hiddenmessage* *password: incmperkele (letters 1, 2, and 3) or incmperse (letter 4)

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Thank you! <3

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