// 005 ISSUE careness

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VIII 2020

careness. careness

VIII 2020 careness

// editors: Agnieszka Kępa Ela Zdebel Ewelina Cisak // zine collaborators & friends: Agata Pawlik | management Martyna Marzec | graphic designer Aleksandra Wróbel Editors note: Original English texts were delivered by the authors. kreatura.zine@gmail.com http://kreaturazine.pl https://www.facebook.com/kreatura.zine https://www.instagram.com/kreatura.zine

Stowarzyszenie Architektów Polskich Oddział Krakowski Plac Szczepański 6 31-011 Kraków

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Issue design: Ela Zdebel Cover graphic: Charnjeev Kang kreatura.zine logo design: Martyna Marzec Typography: Nunito Sans Libra Baskerville Publishing house: Mellow Sp. z o.o. ul. Działowskiego 15, 30-399 Kraków Quantity printed: 80 Release founder: SARP Kraków

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005 content

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The Nightingale And His Cage / Conor Riordan

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Urban Moorings. The Careness Of The City / Daniele Longobardi

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Old boardroom / Johanna Byrne

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River(s) Bodies. Letter To The River Neretva / Jonas Langbein

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Creating Aesthetic Experiences Seeping Into Everyday Life / Boomi Kim

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Sanatorium - The New Type Of Psychiatric Facility / Krystian Woźniak

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Written On Words / Charnjeev Kang

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The Psychogeographer / Tom Brennecke

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Zaczarowanie / Aleksandra Wróbel, Agnieszka Witaszek, Elżbieta Goworek

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Sharing Is Caring / Pablo Encias, Kyra Michel

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The Tender Materiality Of Bamboo / Nicholas Gervasi, Kristina Goncharov

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EASA: The Journey / Louis Koseda

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// About the issue CARENESS, the theme of the latest issue of kreatura. zine, was brought with intention to coincide in time with SESAM 2020 “Poliklinika” workshop in Slavutych, Ukraine (one of the European Architecture Students Assembly related events). It was planned ahead and we could not imagine how later on it will become so accurate for each of us. Right after we‘ve received the first submissions, it became clear that the workshop in Slavutych cannot take place this year and needs to be postponed. Nevertheless, we decided to continue with this relevant and urgent topic and now we can proudly present to you the results!

The idea of what CARENESS means, or how it‘s revealed through actions or objects, is presented in this edition from very different perspectives, written by students and creatives from around the World.

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06 The Nightingale And His Cage essay by Conor Riordan photographs by Zhongjing Zhang

We have built ourselves a cage. A cage so subtly woven from generational distraction that we fail to even realise the tradition of its existence.

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This has been the century of urbanism with more that two thirds of humanity to be living in cities by 20501 . We have much to thank the grand experiment of the city for, improvement in mental and physical health however would not be among the accolades of urban living. The concentration of habitation mainly to urban areas has seen modern living habits reduce the frequency of regular contact with our natural world. The cage is subtly constructed and we are all guilty of its creation, we see it in increased time spent on screens, the rise in indoor sedentary activities as part of everyday life. Even our hours spent outdoors reveal a paucity of meaningful green interaction. The deficit of the urban jungle has resulted in disconnection with the natural sphere2, a gilded cage. The bars of this cage however have become harder and harder to see for spatial access to direct nature experiences become progressively rarified to newer and newer generations. We have created a negative feedback loop, a path dependency. This ever narrowing spectrum of nature experiences has led to a cultural disconnect, an ever growing ‘environmental generational amnesia’3. The current insufficiency of purposeful connection to green space in modern architectural design and planning will not be enough to repair our broken relationship with the natural sphere. We have found ourselves living in a bizarre inversion of Aesop’s fable ‘The Nightingale and his Cage’, the comforts and distraction of the cage of modern urban living have left us deaf to the benefits of meaningful connections to the external and natural spheres. How do we emancipate ourselves of the current harmful paradigm and embrace the abundant resources for both prophylaxis and

1. Jim Robbins (2020) Ecopsychology: How Immersion in Nature Benefits Your Health, Available at: https://e360.yale.edu (Accessed: 2020)

2. P. H. Kahn Jr., Children’s affiliations with nature: Structure, development, and the problem of environmental generational amnesia, in Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural and Evolutionary Investigations , P. H. Kahn Jr., S. R. Kellert, Eds. (MIT Press, 2002).

3. M. Soga, K. J. Gaston , Extinction of experience: The loss of human-nature interactions. Front. Ecol.

Environ. 14, 94–101 (2016).

therapy found immersion in the natural landscape?

4. G. C. Daily, Nature’s Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems (Island Press, 1997).

5. Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-Being (World Resources Institute, 2005).

6. D. S. Grigsby-Toussaint, K. N. Turi, M. Krupa, N. J. Williams, S. R. PandiPerumal, G. Jean-Louis, Sleep insufficiency and the natural environment: Results from the US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey. Prev. Med. 78, 78–84 (2015) 7. White, M.P., Alcock, I., Grellier, J. et al. Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Sci Rep 9, 7730 (2019). https://doi. org/10.1038/s41598-01944097-3

Human wellbeing is linked to meaningful connection to the natural spheres in a myriad of ways (4). The utilisation of nature for benefit and the improvement of quality of life is often referred to as ‘ecosystem services’. They include water purification, provision of food, stabilization of climate, protection from flooding, and many others (5). For the most part this obvious utilization and development of these services do not require much physical proximity to our urban environments. Although the freedom from the whims of nature thanks to technology has helped mankind. The spatial and cultural disconnection to territories that encomapse ‘ecosystem services’ has resulted in the majority of policy making and social development being along the more purely biophysical dimensions of the Earth’s life-support systems. We have developed a path dependency in how we exploit, interact and perceive nature’s ability to sustain us. It would seem obvious to most people that spending time exposed to what we consider natural environments to be of great benefit to one’s health. Little attention however has been paid to the relationship between ecosystem services and mental health. New emerging studies have begun to shine a light on the positive psychological impact of connection and proximity to green space. Several of these studies attribute exposure to natural services in a decrease in both burden and risk factors in a majority of mental illnesses.

These benefits stem from improved sleep⁶ as well as reductions in the biomarkers of acute chronic stress, anxiety disorders, attention deficit disorder, and depression. The prescription of natural immersion for these disorders could be as little as green exposure for only 2 hours a week⁷.

If we are to consider the future of care along both prophylaxis and therapy we must escape our cages and reconnect with the not quite panacea that comes with meaningful natural immersion. With the possible benefits being so clear we must make every effort as designers and planners to break boundaries and foster this connection in our urban environments wherever possible. A path must be found to reclaim and reconnect the cultural consciousness to purposeful congress with the ecological landscape.

The fostering of meaningful re-connection through architectural methodologies however is not such an easy task. The paradigm of merely seeking connection with nature through proximity alone needs to change. Creators and

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facilitators of the built environment need to engage in more than ‘window dressing’ ecology. We fight against a bucolic interpretation and the commodification of landscape. The failed experiment of the suburbs clearly shows that mere proximity is not enough and often results in commodifying the rural and natural setting. It leads only to the destruction of any meaningful interaction with the rapidly shrinking green space.

The creation of settlement that interprets connection to green territory as a basic building block as seen in Hilberseimers ‘New City’ has the possibility of reclaiming our relation to this natural sphere through its ability to improve positive social interactions, cohesion, and engagement⁸ and our sense of eudaemonia in life⁹. Reinforcing the meaning of life through the building block of natural territories and ecosystem services could create a positive feedback loop. Conscientiousness grounded in natural territory would lead to increased focus on ecological issues and public will to address these problems. In the shadow of the oncoming global climate disaster our relationship and interest in natural processes are critical.

Given the emerging body of evidence for the benefits of nature contact across all modes of human existence, physically mentally and spiritually, greater effort should be made to increase access to nature. The ongoing degradation of our proximity and access to true green spaces shows us that designers need to interrogate and reconnect us meaningfully with our ‘ecosystem services’ . New modes of interpreting habitation in relation to ecology and territory are needed at all scales if we are to emancipate ourselves of the current harmful paradigm and embrace the abundant natural and sustainable resources for both prophylaxis and therapy. We need to be free of our cage.

General references:

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Bruno De Meulder, Jan Schreurs, Annabel Cock, Bruno Notteboom (1999) “Patching up the Belgian Urban Landscape”, OASE (52).

Jonas De Vos, Veronique Van Acker & Frank Witlox (2016) Urban sprawl: neighbourhood dissatisfaction and urban preferences. Some evidence from Flanders, Urban Geography Planning Hilberseimer, Ludwig The New Regional Pattern: Industriesand Gardens, Workshops and Farms. Chicago (Ill.): Theobald, 1949.

Pope, Albert. Ladders. 2nd ed. Architecture at Rice 34. Houston:Rice School of Architecture, 2014.

Hilberseimer, Ludwig, Richard Anderson, and Pier Vittorio Aureli. Metropolisarchi

8. E. Orban, R. Sutcliffe, N. Dragano, K.-H. Jöckel, S. Moebus, Residential surrounding greenness, self-rated health and interrelations with aspects of neighborhood environment and social relations. J. Urban Health 94, 158–169 (2017).

9. L. O’Brien, A. Burls, M. Townsend, M. Ebden, Volunteering in nature as a way of enabling people to reintegrate into society.

Perspect. Public Health 131, 71–81 (2011).

Tibet

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Tibet

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14 Urban Moorings The Careness Of The City essay by Daniele Longobardi graphics by Ela Zdebel

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Arcades around Piazza Duomo to play hide and seek. Como, Italy.

Our well-being is closely connected with the city, the main environment of our life, a kind of obelical cord impossible to break.

However, the recent architectural production, due to the profound and little controlled development of the urban fabric, has led to an inevitable loss of character of these, originating disorder and confusion.

Even large buildings, intended for public functions, no longer represent specific places of reference, but find it difficult to have a clear location within the urban fabric, the city thus forms different levels that inevitably lead to different directions, the path is uncontrolled and confused by the coexistence of multiple situations dictated by the lifestyle of the inhabitants.

It is therefore the citizens themselves, who must coexist to exist, providing for “mooring� the city, ensuring that a boat is anchored with moorings, with solid points of grip, to keep it in the predetermined position, take care of it, consider it.

The careness of the city, metaphorically represents the thread that connects the surrounding chaos, with objective interventions aimed at ensuring the improvement of the existing, which creates well-being.

The first citizens to enjoy the new strong ties that can be generated from this care and consideration of the urban context, are children, unaware users, symbol of the desire to discover and adapt, as well as the main indicators of a healthy environment.

For adults, children are the projection of their future and for this reason they are constantly protected and stimulated, even the architecture and structure of our territory must permanently go in this direction, in the future vision of an active space, therefore, it is necessary create a child-friendly city, because a child would surely be able to give a unique meaning to the word space, as a place that combines the physicality of the environment with space-time, living it and adapting to it as if it were not possible to live differently in another place and therefore making it suitable, with a strong bond, to him.

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16 Old Boardroom essay and graphics by Johanna Byrne

Dear Mr Vincent Dodd, On 23rd April I attended a meeting in the newly refurbished and modernised room that used to be the boardroom.

I was disappointed at the loss of the plasterwork on the ceiling, and the removal of the painting that I used to refer to as the divine plan in the lap of the Gods.

The following are some suggestions to improve upon the current state of this room. The mono ceiling trough is inappropriate and inarticulate in variations.

1. LIGHTING: I propose to use 10 Nero lights in three various arrangements. Without diffuser a replica of the original chandelier made from recycled plastic (see included Recycling paper).An additional screen above fireplace where painting used to hang with a frame of three Nero lights arranged in a format similar to Caput Mundi Saviour of the World painting format (see enclosed Argos Catalogue and painting, each frame to contain three Nero lights and touchpad’s remodelled from desk lamp format. In addition to four switches on one panel on wall this would give a wide variant of options on three levels to reduce use of energy and carbon footprint.

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2: FLOOR FINISH: The current floor finish in blue carpet is inappropriate, while it complies with Thermal transmission and sound reduction it may have foam underlay like the foam seating in the Stardust fire. It is also at risk of infestation from lice, fleas and ticks, disease control and Health and Safety requirements. My suggestion for an alternative would be to clad the original varnished timber floor with concrete tiles, cast in Perspex lined formwork with an inner layer of thin wire mesh,

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laid upon mdf or plywood to protect against deflection and cracking (see enclosed details) tile size in module according to room dimensions.

3. AIR: As this room is historical it is not fully compliant with the number of air changes per hour required for compliance.

As an undergraduate student there was a discussion about this with proposals for brick vents and underground J’s and hooks undesirable as it is not appropriate to puncture the building fabric. An additional suggestion would be to use the external skylight to create a wind tunnel this would provide two or three vents within the room along with opening the main front house door. To create a wind tunnel the room door is left open to create a wind tunnel from the main front door. Additional ventilation would increase the useable space within the room and bring it into compliance with the required number of air changes per hour. The new board room might also avail of additional ventilation. Door swings may require adjusting depending on the thickness of tiles and underlay. If 10 15 or 20mm removing a slice from the underside of the door may suffice along with chamfered door saddle if thickness exceeds 20 or 30 mm door may need to be re hung to open outwards.

4.TECHNOLOGY VENTILATION: At present there is one table in hygienic Formica finish of sienna with ochre chairs, in the centre of this table is what appears like a steel letterbox, perhaps this is for ventilation for computer equipment stored within table with increased air flow. I would propose moving this table to room centre aligned with new screen above fireplace, with a clear perimeter on all four sides, the steel void could be used to project 3D hologram models of building feasibility studies along with drawings and images displayed on new screen. The square shape of this table is better suited to island format. A new additional longer rectilinear table with ventilation ducts aligned with air flow for electronic equipment protection and cooling below the table surface, this new table would look nice in blue with gold vent ducts similar to the clothes in the painting the surface of table could be used for refreshments without risk of damage to electronic equipment (see sketch) with a Formica finish like existing table.

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5. CEILING PLASTERWORK: At a later date a tracery replica image of lost ceiling plasterwork could be installed in image format, computer generated pointillism graphic image or screen printed for adhesion to ceiling giving a tromp d’oil 3D image of original plasterwork, later again recycled plastic pieces could be

made and attached for a tangible 3D relief replica of the original plasterwork.

The above five suggestions were discussed with Aishling Murray in the room while waiting for Orla Hegarty, Erin O Malley and Aishling O Grady to arrive and commence meeting, the entire ensemble was to symbolise the spirit and ethos of UCD emblematic in the UCD crest with the blue and green represented by the sky and foliage visible through the windows and the gold metalwork and crystals of the chandelier symbolic of the Irish harp visible on the UCD crest. With the three castles represented via the models of buildings projected through holograms. The ancient and modern in correlation and constructive collaboration. Do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information.

Kind Regards, Johanna Byrne, BSc Arch B Arch GMRIAI. The scans are a part of the letter from the author to Vinent Dodd

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26 River(s) bodies.

Letter to the river Neretva. essay and graphics by Jonas Langbein

I had been thinking about you more often lately. Maybe because the arrival of spring is melting the snow on the mountains. I imagine your blue-green waters jumping, twisting down your steep bed. But then I ask myself how much of these waters will actually arrive at your banks in Mostar where I myself was jumping too from rock to rock and diving into your blue-green shimmering waters two years ago.

But maybe it’s not even a question how much will arrive, but rather when. So many dams are still planned while already the four existing ones cut through your enormous body, separating the different sections of your river course like dissected limbs.

The thirst for electricity releases short but huge swells every day.

You seem to be breathing hectically like a runner after a 1000 m sprint. Just, you don’t calm down.

I know this is making sense - in a way - to not release greenhouse gases that in the future might cause drastic changes globally. But isn’t this pacemaker making equally drastic changes to you? Isn’t your panting just a projection of humans’ hectic sprint towards and away from global warming? Is a world saved from climate change really a better place when we have to sacrifice you and many more?

I went kayaking yesterday on Mangfall. A crystal clear river coming from the mountains here. Around there is where the city is getting it’s water from. Small paths follow the stream and invite people to wander, jump and swim. They come and experience Mangfall’s flowing body with their own bodies.

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I wonder if this makes any changes. With them. With Mangfall.

With you. I wonder if these bodily encounters are making a difference in how we see and think about each other, feel (about) each other. I wonder if we will be able to understand your rapid breathing as a sign for a harmed body that needs care too. Just that some bodies we cannot take to a clinic.

Many questions in these times of inner reflection and social distancing. Many questions that might find some answers less in human distancing but non-human closeness and careness.

I hope these times of human slowing down also allows you to catch your breath and I hope I can be with you again soon!

Jonas

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PS. Rivers bodies is part of a collection of letters written to the river Neretva, flowing through the Bosnian city Mostar with aim to document ecological, political and material transformations caused by war in Mostar between 1992-1996. Historically, the city has been developed along the river, connected with nine bridges that with river banks before the war where important spaces of sociality. As the consequence of the war bridges destruction, construction of temporary war bridges that embodied traumas from inhabitants’ survival strategies.

Neretva and her organic system changed in environmental terms but also in its spatial and social role. In the wartime, the river ecosystem started to deposit anorganic materials, pieces of exploded bombs, remnants of temporary bridges and other debris. Since then, the river natural ecosystem is in constant becoming introducing hybrid spaces and species that today are underrepresented. Un-war space lab intention is to think „with” Neretva and through narratives on architecture, nature, mapping, underwater archaeology, document her hybrid condition observing nature destruction and interspecies alliances. Thinking „with“ Neretva includes the bodily immersion in the flowing body of the river (Img. 1) and in architectural practice methods that are blurry and ambiguous allowing for the river, humans, non-humans to engage with and within the created spaces. (Img. 2-4 design proposals from the master thesis Storyscape Neretva) Un-war space lab about Un-war space lab is cross-media research-based practice on transformations of rivers, land, forests, architectures, society caused by war, military practices and other forms of violence led by Armina Pilav, researcher in ecologies of violent spatial transformations and lecturer at the Department of Landscape Architecture – The University of Sheffield. Damir Ugljen is independent researcher, working in fields of archaeology, social anthropology and spatial inquiry. Jonas Langbein is architect, working on other forms of (more-than-)human cohabitation through architectural projects about inclusion, communication, care and living-together.

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30 Creating Aesthetic Experiences Seeping Into Everyday Life essay by Boomi Kim

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32 Sanatorium – The New Type Of Psychiatric Facility essay and graphics by Krystian Woźniak

At the beginning of the 20th century one of the biggest problem in psychiatry was the increasing overcrowding of its institution.

In the late 19th century the most popular architectural model of psychiatric asylum was a cottage plan. Different group of patients, divided by gender, class and the level of calmness where put in separate houses, cottages or pavilions, often in nature.

Throughout that time, the design of pavilions, their size or capacity was changing, with a tendency to build more sizeable buildings. Due to the high influx of patients, later pavilions were at least two times bigger Even after building nineteen new institutions up to 1918 and the next nine during the interwar period the problem persisted. At some point, increasing bed provision created a demand leading to rising numbers of admissions. The Dutch government put a stop to the building boom due to the economic recession in 19341.

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The late 19th and early 20th-century asylum was a closed institution, where only people with an officially recognized mental disease could find treatment. In 19th-century psychiatry turned mostly to organic explanations of mental illness. There, anyone who suffered from different disorder, that according to clinic psychiatrists was not caused by organ damage, was eligible for treatment in an asylum. In effect, many of those who suffered from neurasthenia, other neurotic disorders or alcohol addiction, have to look for other places for treatment. Moreover, the degenerationist concept of heredity of mental illness created a negative image of asylums, especially for upper classes, for which any association with mental disroder would damage their social status. Wealthy then tried to avoid associations with asylums and tended to send their sick family members to private institutions, that become extremely popular in the late 19th century.

1. Gijswijt-Hofstra et al., Psychiatric Cultures Compared : Psychiatry and Mental Health Care in the Twentieth Century: Comparisons and Approaches.

2. J. Vijselaar, "Neurasthenia in the Netherlands," in Cultures of neurasthenia from Beard to the first world war, ed. Marijke GijswijtHofstra and Roy S. Porter (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001).239 3. Porter, Madness : a brief history.87 4. M. Gijswijt-Hofstra, "In Search of Dutch Neurasthenics from the 1880s to the early1920s," in Cultures of neurasthenia from Beard to the first world war, ed. Marijke GijswijtHofstra and Roy S. Porter (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001).284

5. Mens, Andela, and Heerze-te Winkel, De architectuur van het psychiatrisch ziekenhuis.

These private sanatoria were an outcome of specific ideas, where the rapidly changing world at the time of industrialisation, supposedly caused nervous disorders amongst the upper class, mostly men. They were at that time in the Netherlands regarded as weak, phlegmatic and lacking of moral orientation2. The first physician who described neurasthenia was American George M. Beard. For him, the tumultuous environment of the world’s progress resulted in a lack of “nerve force” amongst some people3. His ideas were later transferred to Europe and were extremely popular in Germany and Austria. Neurasthenia was less popular at the time in the Netherlands, and although around 1900 there were 19 sanatoria for Dutch sufferers, their total capacity is estimated a little more than 500. Most of these facilities would accommodate a small number of patients. First ones were built in the last 20 years of the 19th century, like small pavilion Rustoord as a part of Veldwijk asylum⁴.

There is a link between fashion for neurasthenia in Central Europe and a boom for opening new facilities in the Netherlands after 1900. Dutch, looking for treatment in Austria, Switzerland or Germany, pointed out the demand in their own country. For asylums, providing the service for wealthy nervous patients was an economic advantage but also a way to change an image of the asylum as a closed institution. The amendment to the insanity law in 1904, led to the possibility of creating an open department linked to the asylum. There was no need to have a juridical certification for admission and anyone who could afford care could receive it. Later on also the care for poor in open departments was made possible in 1929 by making the municipalities to pay for their care. These open departments were almost always called “clinics” or “sanatoria”, like private facilities in Germany.

Because of this influence, we can use German and Austrian examples as protagonists to the architecture of open departments. We know that architect E. G Wentik, designer of many asylums in the Netherlands like Veldwijk and Christian sanatorium in Zeist (1903) in swiss chalet-style, made prior a study trip to visit few places in central Europe⁵. Edward Shorter describes a wide variety of private institutions there were nervous could seek help. These covers water therapy clinics, spas, sanatoriums, open departments in asylums or clinics. The most crucial figure in those was a doctor who often owned the institution. In their programme, they never offered treatment of mental illness, but a variety of therapies of neurotic disorder or even organic diseases, but in fact, many of their patients were

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psychotics or hypochondriacs⁶. The clinic owners never wanted to be associated with “classic” mental disorders.

Leslie Topp provides an interesting analysis of Pukersdorf Sanatorium for nervous diseases in Vienna⁷. Its layout and design principles are similar like in later open departments in the Netherlands. The Purkersdorf sanatorium consisted of two short wings joined by central section with the main representative staircase. From outside it looked like a villa.

The idea for treating nervous disease consisted of taking the neurotics out of hectic surroundings and chaotic life and placing them in an orderly environment. The day of the patient had a clear schedule full of various activities or therapies. The building layout then supported the regime of treatment with its clear division of spaces for different purposes like sleeping, eating, therapy or leisure. Moreover, the doctors quarter was placed in the central section, underlying his position and simplifying the supervision. Simple layout and glass doors supported constant observation of his clients. These clinics only admitted patients who would entirely submit to doctors guidelines.

Furthermore, the provision of light, fresh air and space was still an inherent element in healthcare architecture and had therapeutic importance. Although now it was to be achieved in one compact building, instead of pavilions in the park in the cottage plan model⁸. Designer of Pukersdorf, Josef Hoffman, achieved this through the implementation of big windows and orientation towards the south. Finally, the use of the newest building technology and elements embodying modernity served in creating an impression of science-based treatment.

One of the most popular elements in asylum life was active therapy, adopted at first in Santopoort hospital (renamed Meerenberg, the biggerst 19th century asylum in the Netherlands). The main idea was to prepare patients to return to society by engaging them in all sorts of activities like manual work, singing, dancing and more⁹. The difference from previous work therapy was choosing the activities better suited to a particular patient rather than labour10. The therapy also intended to keep patients busy during the day so they will cause fewer problems during the night.

Kliniek Neder-Veluwe

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In 1933, the association of orthodox protestants ordered a design of an open section for mentally ill and nerve sufferers

6. E. Shorter, ""Private Clinics in Central Europe" 1850-1933," Social history of medicine (1990).

7. L. Topp, "An Architecture for Modern Nerves: Josef Hoffmann's Purkersdorf Sanatorium," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 56, no. 4 (1997).

8. Mens and Wagenaar, Health Care Architecture in the Netherlands.

9. de Waardt, Mending minds: a cultural history of Dutch academic psychiatry.

10. Mens and Wagenaar, Health Care Architecture in the Netherlands.

11. J.G. Wattjes, " Het nieuwe gebouw voor de kliniek "Neder-Veluwe" arch.: E.J. Rothuizen," Het Bouwbedrijf 14, no. 16 (1937).

12. Mens, Andela, and Heerze-te Winkel, De architectuur van het het psychiatrisch ziekenhuis.

for one of their asylums in Wolfheze. The task was assigned to architect E. J. Rothuizen, who previously designed new pavilions for this psychiatric complex11. The building, like other open departments in the Netherlands, although falling under administration of asylum, was spatially separated from the primary institution12. “Neder-Veluwe was disjoined from the rest of the pavilions by fence, pergolas and greenery. Even its name “clinic” had been breaking any associations with the concept of an asylum. Located near the station and parallel to one of the main roads, the clinic was undoubtedly visible and therefore served as a business card of the Wolfheze asylum.

In layout and design principles, the clinic is similar to other open departments like sanatoriums famous expressionist Noorder Sanatorium by Reitsma. It contains the middle section with wings stretching from it. Central section housing administration and medical services are more representational than the rest of the building, there is a clear ¬division into calm and restless patients and day and night activities, moreover, there are separate spaces - workshops for active therapy. Garden design also receives individual attention

13. Wattjes, " Het nieuwe gebouw voor de kliniek "Neder-Veluwe" arch.: E.J. Rothuizen."

14. Mens and Wagenaar, Health Care Architecture in the Netherlands.

In Neder-Veluwe were two main wings running parallel to the road and additional sections were added in front and behind the middle part. The most massive wings contained patients bedroom and dayrooms, staff rooms, isolation rooms, permanent baths, examination and consultation rooms, family visits spaces or spiritual caretake office. The left one housed women and the right one men. The smallest wing, placed in front of the building is only one storey but contain the doctor’s office. The wing behind the middle section contained a kitchen, operation room and several additional rooms for various treatments – the medical section. At the rear, parallel to the main wings were workshops for active therapy, storage and nurse day room. Between the main wings and workshops, two gardens were designed, separated by medical section, for both genders13.

In the architecture of sanatoriums, one of the main principles was the provision of light, fresh air and space14. The building’s wings were oriented along the west-east axis, providing as much light as possible from south to the dayrooms and patients or staff dorms. The southern façade is characteristic by its big windows, much bigger than windows on the northern side.

Due to safety measures windows were divided into smaller parts. The service functions, isolation or separation rooms or

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staircases were located on the northside of the wings, as they do not require significant amounts of daylight. The dayrooms had the entire depth of the wing in order to bring the morning and evening light to them15. However, they were divided into three sections to group patients according to their behaviour. In order to ensure surveillance, large amounts of glass were used in room divisions, also in dividing the patient’s bedrooms16. Big windows allowed ventilation and gardens behind and a park with a pond in front of the clinic provided open space.

Nicole Imrie argues that the architecture of the first sanatoria for nerve sufferers responded to the pace of life and treatment inside and adopted these features from sanatoria for tuberculosis.

These aspects include designating each space with different activity – reassembling the patients day17. In the “Nederveluwe” The patient rooms were located mainly on the first floor and the ground floor. Calmer had their spaces closer to the middle section and restless more to the end of the wings.

Patients slept in dorms counting around six beds, each. They would spend time in dayrooms or the garden and participate in active therapy in workshops at the back. We can spot a spatial division into different activities, reflecting patients daily routine. Location of doctor’s office at the front of the building middle part underlined his position and consequently treatment regime prescribed by him, feature again fundamental for private sanatoria for neurotics.

The clinic had place for 76 woman and 54 men. Thus, the left wing, intended for female patients, is longer18. The reason in this indifference, according to the pre-war sources lies in not in medicine but social relations. A woman could be sent for treatment and leave her family more quickly than men tied to his obligations in work and family19. Without a doubt, this reasoning is a result of particular gender roles and relations from that period Whatever this was true or not, as clinic admitted mainly paying patients, we can relate this reasoning to the simple reality of the market, where fewer men decided to go on therapy. In terms of sex division, apart from different wings and gardens for each gender, it was not possible to see from women corridor into men’s one and vice versa, due to intentional misalignment in the plan20.

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The middle section stands out with its height, similarly to Noorder Sanatorium, and by a stained glass window, created

by Arnhem artist J.H.E Schilling, how also worked on a stained glass window in another orthodox protestant sanatorium.. The

15. Wattjes, " Het nieuwe gebouw voor de kliniek "Neder-Veluwe" arch.: E.J. Rothuizen."

16. "Nieuwe Zenuwklieniek "Nederveluwe"," Amersfoortsch Dagblag (Amersfoort), 9.05.1935 1935, https:// archiefeemland.courant. nu/issue/ADDE/1935-0509/edition/0/page/5.5

17. N. Imrie, "Creating an Appropriate Social Milieu.

Journeys to Health at a Sanatorium for Nervous Disorders," in Journeys into Madness, ed.

Gemma Blackshaw and Sabine Wieber, Mapping Mental Illness in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Berghahn Books, 2012).

18. Wattjes, " Het nieuwe gebouw voor de kliniek "Neder-Veluwe" arch.: E.J. Rothuizen."

19. "Nieuwe Zenuwklieniek "Nederveluwe".

20. Wattjes, " Het nieuwe gebouw voor de kliniek "Neder-Veluwe" arch.: E.J. Rothuizen."

21. "Nieuwe Zenuwklieniek "Nederveluwe"."

22. Wattjes, " Het nieuwe gebouw voor de kliniek "Neder-Veluwe" arch.: E.J. Rothuizen."

23. Mens and Wagenaar, Health Care Architecture in the Netherlands.

24. "De kliniek „De Neder-Veluwe" te Wolfheze Behoorende aan de Chr. Ver. tot verzorging van Krankzinnigen in Nederland," De Standaard, 16.08.1935, (1935).

25. J.G. Wattjes " Het nieuwe gebouw voor de kliniek "Neder-Veluwe" arch.: E.J. Rothuizen," Het Bouwbedrijf 14, no. 17 (1937).

26. "Bijzondere plechtigheid op „Wolfheze”. Afscheid van den geneesheerdirecteur en van den huismeester.

Installatie der nieuwe functionnarissen.," De Standaard (Amsterdam), 26.04.1935 (1935).

27. Wattjes, " Het nieuwe gebouw voor de kliniek "Neder-Veluwe" arch.: E.J. Rothuizen."

window consists of two parts divided by the main staircase landing. At the bottom, we can see figures expressing the human misery, but at the top, we see a female figure raising her hands towards the light, as an expression of liberation21. In the context of the psychiatric institution of Christian origin, this artwork contains a moralistic message – liberation from madness is only possible through the influence of God. On the other hand, we can interpret this as more comforting meaning – the scene on the window functions as a promise of healing.

While design a building architect E.J. Rotshuzien tried to save as many trees as possible to preserve the natural setting of the clinic. The rest became a part of garden design by Otto Schultz, who also implemented a big pond in front of the building.

Saving the trees, allowed having a beautiful garden, already at the beginning22.

No less important was interior design. Van der Scheer, the doctor from Santopoort who introduced active therapy, paid attention to creating a lively, cheerful environment in which patients spent their time23. In “Neder-Veluwe walls were painted with watercolour in light and soft tones. The furniture and curtains had the colour of the room where they stood.

Furnishing included famous furniture of Viennese designer Thonet, made of bent wooden rods. The factory of famous Dutch designer Gispen supplied the various kinds of lighting with unique safety designs for parts with restless patients24.

All of this meant to create a cosy, pleasant atmosphere. All materials used inside were easy to clean and maintain25.

Worth mentioning is the quality of spaces for staff. The Wolfheze asylum long-term director dr. J. Ronda paid particular attention to the quality of working conditions of nurses and wished to make their stay on the institution grounds more pleasant26. In cottage-plan model nurses would often sleep almost in the same space with patients. In “Neder-Veluwe” there were staff rooms on the second floor. Each with the access to the loggia on the south side with the view over the village of Wolfheze. The rooms had a pull-out bed, two chairs with a table, sink and wardrobe27.

Authors of newspaper articles describing the opening of the clinic in 1935 praised its modern look and enumerated all different associations to technology and science. First of all, the “Neder-Veluwe” in plan reminded them of an aircraft, threedecked plane. The section with the doctor’s room was a cockpit,

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the parts with dorms looked like the wings, the medical section – a cabin and the rear – the tail28. The architecture of the clinic do not bring associations of luxury (it was an open department for paying patients but with much lower prices, around 60% of average back then), reporters compared it to diesel train. There, the 3 class client could feel like sitting in 2sc or 1st class, because everything was modern and cutting-edge29.

28. "Nieuwe Zenuwklieniek "Nederveluwe".

Moreover, technological innovations used in a building brought much attention likewise. Media compared cellars to the engine room of a large ship. They mentioned the innovative heating system in isolation cells, which used the flow of hot air rather than radiators, limiting the water temperature in taps to a maximum of 40 degrees to prevent patients from burning30.

They enumerated all rooms from medical sections, concluding that “Neder-Veluwe” has everything that modern hospital should have.

29. "De kliniek „De Neder-Veluwe" te Wolfheze Behoorende aan de Chr. Ver. tot verzorging van Krankzinnigen in Nederland."

However, if we look at the pictures of the clinic, we will not see the white, pure, functionalist “hygienic” building. The modernist style seemed to be a perfect match for a healthcare architecture which is determined by its function. The modern movement expressed itself praising the new developments ina society like science, technology, sense of speed. Nevertheless, “Nederveluwe” clinic, packed with science and technology inside, like many other hospitals and sanatoria would receive more traditionalist look. Noor Mens and Coor Wagenaar pinpoint the reason of modernists failure in hospital architecture to their antagonistic character towards current truths, where modernists where closer to the socialist and communist philosophies31.

According to articles from the 1930s, the architecture of the clinic corresponded to its architect style32. If we look at E.J. Rotshuzien works, we will see buildings following the principles of Amsterdam school as well the style of Delft School later in his work. The “Neder-veluwe” is more traditional in style and more rural at some point, the architect used plenty of natural materials like stone or teak wood. However, the protruding roofs, stripes of high, white windows and red-brown brick design prove inspiration from Amsterdam school33. The rural outlook can be as well related to the rural character of sanatoria as health resorts.

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The clinic “Neder-veluwe” survived the Second World War despite the bombardment of Wolfheze during World War II, which destroyed some pavilions and brought several casualties.

The sanatorium was at that time mostly used by German

30. "De kliniek „De Neder-Veluwe" te Wolfheze Behoorende aan de Chr. Ver. tot verzorging van Krankzinnigen in Nederland."

31. Mens and Wagenaar, Health Care Architecture in the Netherlands.

32. "De nieuwe kliniek "Neder-Veluwe" te Wolfheze," Bouwen Interieurkunst, 26.04.1935, (1935).

33. Mens, Andela, and Heerze-te Winkel, De architectuur van het psychiatrisch ziekenhuis.

34. M. van der Beek, Egodocument Beek, 19401944, typescript.4¬-8 35. A.G. Guttersen, "Mental helth Programs and Facilities in Europe and Asia," in Psychiatric architecture : a review of contemporary developments in the architecture of mental hospitals, schools for the mentally retarded and related facilities : with ass. of e. keenan : repr, ed. C. E. Goshen and E. Keenan (Washington: American Psychiatric Association, 1960).

36. Staatsblad van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, (Staatsdrukkerij en Uitgeverijbedrijf, 1963).

37. Gemeente Renkum, "Vastgesteld bestemmingsplan ‘Wolfheze 2017’, (2017).

female communication units from the nearby airport and German troops retreating from France34. After war building probably housed older patients from the psychiatric hospital in Wolfheze, what proves the relation of American psychiatrist Alston G. Guttersen from the 1950s35 and advertisements for elderly caretakers from later years. In 1963 “Neder-veluwe” lost its status as an institution for the care of mentally ill36. The clinic was demolished in the 1990s37. Probably because of the same reason that led to the closing of many other asylums or sanatoria – the decentralisation of psychiatric care, focusing on outpatient treatment and limiting the number of beds.

Conclusions The sanatoria were without a doubt used as a measure to open up asylums, and architecture was used to change public perception of mental institutions. The model of open department follows the model of sanatoria for a nervous disorder, thus breaking up with pavilion typology. It embraced many features of its preceding private institutions like its internal organisation, reflecting the hierarchy in the underlined position of physician and supported surveillance. The active therapy brought new kind of spaces – the workshops. Still for healthcare architecture critical was the provision of light air and space. In a single sizeable building, it required more sophisticated measures than putting a cottage in a park-like setting. To achieve this, the orientation, organisation in plan and the terrain outside should correspond to it. The clinic looked more like a present-day regular hospital, with all its associations to progress and technology and according to Noor Mens or Cor Wagenaar sanatoria were a turning point in the evolution of psychiatric architecture. Unfortunately, the history of psychiatry in the Netherlands shows a different picture.

Sanatoria soon became another overcrowded institution for chronic patients or served as an observation ward where patients were transferred later to the asylum. Moreover, the recovery rate in open departments was lower than in regular institutions.

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42 Written On Words

A Shared Prayer to the Monuments of the Unconscious essay and graphics by Charnjeev Kang

Written On Words is a conceptual exercise that asks, can a place exist without naming it? What happens when our attention is guided through the embodiment of myth outside of our psychological geography? The work tracks and documents the efforts of anthropologist Tintinnabuli who has dedicated his life to construct an almanac charting a voyage taken through his own mental territories and the mental constructs of those who he has encountered throughout his journey, Tintinnabuli spends his days meeting the inhabits of WOW who do not live in our world of categorised universal representations. Instead, they inhabit a real but entirely individual realm, to which no one else has direct access. The almanac consists of artefacts recorded by Tintinnabuli whom uses drawing, film & sculpture as a method of representing places, investigation & discovery. The cannon of these mediums behave as gates inviting the viewer to make their own voyage through a territory to elsewhere if they choose to.

I started exploring this research by writing a short film about a being who wakes each day as a new person and into a new reality. I embarked on a journey embodying this condition.

Travelling through diverse countries, from event to event, person to person. With no destination in mind but a pure preoccupation with using the body I have to actively perform the narrative into daily life. In a bid to experience chance events, unforeseeable encounters and emotions flowing through a liminal space fed from both a physical and non-physical world.

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I would relish the opportunity to elucidate these works further, expanding on how my approach and methodologies of this work have continually evolved over time, expressed through drawing, film and physical artefacts as three-dimensional maps communicating fantasies as facts and tools for spatial insights.

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52 The Psychogeographer Or The Lonely Soul In A Caring Economy essay by Tom Brennecke graphics by Ela Zdebel “The unity of nearness and remoteness involved in every human relation is organized, in the phenomenon of the stranger, in a way which may be most briefly formulated by saying that in the relationship to him, distance means that he, who is close by, is far, and strangeness means that he, who also is far, is actually near.”1 Someone forgot a pumping heart. I found it yesterday morning laying besides a bin of my beloved supermarket. I wrapped it in a bread bag and put it in my pocket. Then this morning, as I walked my dog, I found an ear. It was placed on a transformer, directed towards the entrance of the metro. I placed my headphones inside it and carried it home — both of us listening to Dancing in the Dark. Back home, I quickly threw it in a box, to the pumping heart, and set out again. For hours, I have found nothing else than notebooks, tissues, cigarette stubs with lipstick on and those tiny floating plasma curls. If you touch them once, I promise, you will not do it again. Plasma curls can hardly be returned. It is non-erasable ballast. It was already dusk when I crossed the junction close to my house. As the car passed and offered not only way but silence, I heard a mumble resting in the air, almost like a perfume. “I cannot wait more days to meet you again” is what I understood, or wanted to understand. From previous experiences, I am well-aware of the fact that one has to be careful approaching these things. A simple answer is not enough, so I managed to press my eyelids strong enough to generate a teardrop. Those things love teardrops. Back home, I slowly directed “I cannot wait more days to meet you again” into the box, together with the ear and the heart.

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“We may store our memories in our houses, but we take them with us when we leave. If we are lucky, they can form the backbone of a happy adult life, but our early memories, if they are not so benign,

1. Simmel, Georg; The Stranger in Oakes, Timothy; Price, Patricia L.; The Cultural Geography Reader; 2008.

2. Ellard, Collin; Places of the Heart – Psychogeography of Everyday Life; Places of Affection, Bellevue Literatry Press, 68.

3. Ellard, Collin; Places of the Heart – Psychogeography of Everyday Life; Places of Affection, Bellevue Literatry Press; 2015; 126.

can spring their mental coils at unexpected moments, leaving us with unsettled feelings...”2 Like my colleagues, I was a newbie when all of this started. No one knew anything about psychogeography; and the ones that did hear of that, had no idea it could be something material. We are out all days, collecting these things that we call lost public goods. We know that no heart, or ear, or conversation is able to survive on its own. But we are not simply collectors of lost and founds, we are psychogeographers. I, myself, am now 49 years old — almost too old to do this job. But I have had luck in my life, except once, when I lost my own heart. Someone returned it to me, quickly but careful. For 10 odd years, I did not know who he was. So I lost it again. And once more. And once more.

Every time a little more obvious, nonetheless more painful. I was shattered. And in the worst of all moments, the saviour of my heart made a mistake. Instead of my heart, he gave me his. And from this moment on, I was a psychogeographer, estranged from my own soul and driven by the pain of others.

Psychogeographers are only out when no one else is. One cannot see those things laying about in the modern metropolis.

They choose places of silence, little corners, plinths and cracks.

So what do we do with that stuff, someone has asked me recently. And the answer is: We do not actually know. We have heard of cases where a pumping heart has been successfully returned to society, serving a greater good, but those times seem to remain exceptions. It was all easier, when people were more susceptible for such things. When a broken heart still mattered and charity was held high. Nowadays, with everything physically we find, we equip museums - everything metaphysically has to wait until this one very moment, when someone says “When do we meet again?” and I can jump into the scene, throwing “I cannot wait more days to meet you again” in between the lines. The possibility of a rejection remains, but interfering in the world is always risky. “...psychiatric disturbances related to anxiety occur with greater frequency in urban environments. Diagnosed rates of anxiety disorders, clinical depression, and schizophrenia are all higher among those who live in cities than among those who live in rural areas.”3 I have caught myself not being able to walk freely. I have caught myself scanning the environment for these lost beauties, for ownerless hearts, for reusable scam and fainted properties. I could not sleep for days on end. Every Friday, we all meet to

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sketch out new plans, organize us and demarcate what our job is and what not. There have been weeks, when we have all been worn out from all the emotions we have found. One of our oldest members is every now and then sharing a story of what happened 1919 in Paris, during the Spanish Flu. They had to bury many hearts, as many as the soil could take. Some thoughts and ideas could never be returned to society. Everyone fled to places and to hopes. “And what overwhelmed me was longing.

Longing for the very same Paris in which I found myself in the dream. But where does this longing come from? And where does this disfigured, unrecognisable object come from? The reason being I came too close to it in the dream. The tremendous longing which had struck me here, in the heart of that which was longed for, did not press itself from the distance into an image.”4

4. Benjamin, Walter; The Storyteller; 2016; Too Close; Verso (Chapter 8).

Obviously, since then we have improved. We have set up our agenda. We are a caring economy. Mainly run voluntarily, without any expectations from anyone. You may describe us as an informal organization. In times like these, we sometimes work for clients; but our motivation comes from caring. Caring is our capital. We are rewarded with emotions and memories: At best, when we can reunite people, spark a positive conversation with a thought that has been lost. At worst, when someone dies upon return of his broken heart. But that is part of the job. We avoid ignorance, we maintain stability of the urban realm.

After our Friday meetings, we usually turn to a café or a bar, when things are not too bad. This time, we have no place to go.

So we sit together, mostly in silence and eat a couple of small things, like in an aperitivo. When we are out, we are a group of geographers having an internal meeting. When we return home, all on our own, we are a group of psychos — all suffered individually from their experiences and losses; people who “exist within a private language and unique syntax.”5 We are deriveurs, if you want: “...conducting a psychogeographical investigation, [...] expected to return home having noted the ways in which the areas traversed resonate with particular moods and ambiences”.6

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In front of my door was a mask walked to ground. I noticed it first when I already stood on it to fish for my keys in my pocket.

And I did not only stand on a mask, but squeezed something underneath it. I took out my glove and lifted the mask. A bleeding mouth was sticking to it. The mouth was moving, so I hold it close to my ear. “I want to disappear” is what it said. But I will also return this mouth. I will find the one who has been shut down by a desire to disappear. And one can imagine that more

5. Frie, Roger; Loneliness and relatedness: a philosophical and psychotherapeutic account in Miller; Eric D.; Sagan, Olivia; Narratives of Loneliness – Multidisciplinary Perspectives from the 21st Century; Routledge; 2018; 32.

6. Coverley, Merlin; Guy Debord and the Situationist International in Psychogeography; Pocket Essentials; 2006; 96.

often than not, I find even more intimate things than a mouth.

Things, one cannot imagine, someone else would ever lose.

Things, I do not even dare to take home. The price we pay for what we do is high, the failure rate amongst us has risen exponentially in the last years. But balance is important. Too big is the risk of having unbalanced emotional levels in our everyday life. We cannot afford to lose a heart, or a word, or a look for each other. And it is only the harshest of the situations, that pushes people to forgo on those things. Moments, where caring comes in the form of charity.

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56 Zaczarowanie essay and photographs by Aleksandra Wróbel, Agnieszka Witaszek, Elżbieta Goworek

- Przepraszam, że przeszkadzam, ale ciekawość mnie zżera..., dokąd się dziecko wybierasz?

- Ach nie ma za co przepraszać, na wakacje, do rodzinnego domu wracam, a Pani?

- Rozumiem, rozumiem, rodzinnego domu... z Gdyni jadę, o, właśnie mija szósta godzina, do sanatorium. Córka mnie spakowała, powiedziała - jedź i nie wracaj! Może żartowała..., ale Krynica... każdy o niej słyszał, prawda? Krynica Zdrój, wujenka z Wrocławia mówi, że bajka, a ja najdalej na południe to w Busku bywałam.

- Zgadza się, słyszałam. Zapewne Pani wypocznie. Na długo się Pani wybiera?

- Całe trzy tygodnie! Spakowałam szlafrok, kijki do chodzenia, wszystko mam, a wciąż wrażenie że czegoś nie ma, że czegoś zapomniałam. Pani taka młoda to pewnie szkoda na telewizor czasu, ale ostatnio pokazywali na Rozrywce takie perypetie w sanatorium, myśli Pani, że mnie też czekają takie? Córka mówi, że jak moja współlokatorka...

- Współlokatorka to ważna sprawa.

- Tak, tak w rzeczy samej, o nie daj Bóg, żeby chrapała, prawda?

To już pobyt staje się nieprzyjemny, a jak za mało lub za bardzo gadatliwa to człowiek się wyleczy, a psychicznie zachoruje. No, miejmy nadzieje, miejmy nadzieje.

- A pokój z łazienką?

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- A no z łazienką z łazienką, córka się starała, żeby był blisko stołówki, żebym się nie forsowała.

Jak jest w sanatorium? W sanatorium to sztucznie się trochę zachowuje człowiek, np. na jadalni same maniery kulturalne, a w gruncie rzeczy to jest inaczej - rozmawiając z koleżanką z pokoju dobierasz słowa, żeby wyrobić sobie markę osoby oczytanej i kulturalnej, mimo że często tak nie jest. Cokolwiek nie robisz to koniecznie musisz pokazać to, jakiego jesteś zdania: oceniasz film, prowadzisz dyskusję, pokazujesz swój punkt widzenia: musisz krytykować albo wnosić coś nowego zawsze. Nawet idąc na spacer w większej grupie Twoja współlokatorka zachwyca się przyrodą, liczy każdy płatek kwiatka, mimo że wczoraj powiedziała, że nienawidzi swojego ogródka. Tak już jest – dwulicowość. No i oczywiście reszta nie chce wypaść wcale gorzej, więc każdy też zachwala, a jakże!

Każdy chce się jakoś wybić: jak nie w dyskusji to poprzez strój: buty, sukienka. Idąc na wieczorny koncert wszyscy walczą o byt, o krzesło - aby być jak najbliżej muzyków. Te same kobiety co przed chwilą się tak rozpychały teraz zwracają uwagę innym: a niech pani nie szura krzesłem! Niech pani się uciszy! A co robiły przed chwilą? Jakaż to obłuda! *** W sanatorium trzeba również walczyć w kolejce o jedzenie: nikt nie czeka kulturalnie, ale za to każdy innym zwraca uwagę: - Pani tu nie stała! jednak mając okazję sami wyprzedzają wszystkich. I na każdy posiłek jest to samo – cały czas kolejki, po 400 ludzi na sale! Ludzie krzyczą: zajmij mi miejsce! Kłócą się, wyzywają, ale zwrócić komuś uwagę to ho! ho! wielka obraza. Rzucą ogryzek, peta na podłogę, mimo że kosz obok, taka to kultura. Zabiegi to wiadomo, każdy pokorny. Krótko mówiąc: innym się jest, jak Cię obserwują, a innym, gdy nikt nie patrzy. Czasem podziękuje ktoś za zwróconą uwagę, ale zwykle to, mimo że wiedział, że popełnił gafę, się do tego nie przyzna. - Albo w łazience jakie brudy zostawiają. To jest kultura? *** A ci co chcą kogoś poderwać – no bo po to przecież jadą! Takie głupstwa opowiadają, głupoty, a wcale nie są przez to lepsi. I to właśnie widać najbardziej na wieczorkach – istny pokaz mody - jak karnawał w Rio - różnorodne sukienki, plecy odkryte, pomarszczone, ramiona odkryte, jakby lusterka nie mieli, tracą poczucie wieku, sukienka przed kolana - żylaki na wierzchu, trzeba wiedzieć co pasuje, a co nie. A wszystko to walka o płeć przeciwną. Ludzie w starszym wieku boją się starości i szukają

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przyjaciela. Na przykład wdowa w starszym wieku robi sztuczne ruchy - to się da zauważyć: kobieta 80 letnia rusza się tak jak 50 letnia. Chce pokazać, że jeszcze sprawna: ruchowo, pamięciowo, że elegancka - każdy się boi samotności na starość. No więc się stroją – na śniadanie w jednym, na obiad już w czymś innym, na kolację też inaczej. Każdy przyjeżdża z wielkim bagażem. *** Gorzej jak ktoś zostawi swoją drugą połówkę w domu i szuka relaksu. Byłam świadkiem czegoś takiego w Krynicy: wracaliśmy autobusem i siedzieli ze mną ludzie z sanatorium: on miał wysiadać chyba w Busku, a ona w Kielcach. On mówił, że ją odwiezie do Kielc, koniecznie chciał no bo bujnął się w niej.

A ona nie chciała, bo bała się ze ktoś ją odbierze w Kielcach no i zobaczy. On wtedy powiedział: tak, pewnie masz kogoś i boisz się, że Cię ze mną zobaczą! Oszukałaś mnie, wyciągnęłaś pieniądze i teraz zostawiasz! Tak samo moja koleżanka - bujnęła się w facecie i jadąc do pracy do Ćmińska cały czas płakała i wspominała, mimo że to on ją rzucił.

To samo się dzieje na deptaku: popisywanie się, prezentowanie siebie z jak najlepszej strony. Są takie osoby, z jakiś agencji czy skądś – nie wiem, które chodzą z żółtym parasolem i w różowej sukience i umawiają się z każdym kto tam chętny się zgłaszał, i z kobietami, i z mężczyznami. Więc burdel kwitnie.

Różnorodność i kolorowość. ***

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Czemu tak jest? No każdy chce uciec od codzienności. Chcą na nowo pokazać swoją wartość, jednak zwykle to się po prostu poniżają. Przecież jak ktoś nie ma nic do powiedzenia, a tu nagle ktoś pochwali jego strój no to przecież od razu czuje się ‘wyżej’.

Każdy odczuwa potrzebę, żeby błysnąć, usłyszeć pochwałę, czego nie dostaje w domu. Niektórzy mają przez to manię wyższości, która rośnie, jeżeli się kogoś pokona w dyskusji, lub jeżeli ktoś tobie ulegnie, no to ma się ogromną satysfakcję z tego. Bo przecież jak już się całkowicie nie ma czego powiedzieć to najlepiej krytykować wszystkich i wszystko naokoło, wtedy najłatwiej można zbudować swoją wartość. Miałam nawet taką sytuację: biorę wodę w pijalni i mówię: ale piękny marmur na ścianach! A ona do mnie, że przecież to nie jest żaden marmur tylko inny kamień i to z takimi nerwami jeszcze. Ja jestem z wykształcenia geologiem i jestem przekonana, że to marmur był, no ale przecież nie przekonam jej.

A ja? Ja nie boję się samotności na starość, bo mam Was, ale gdybym nie miała? Jak jadę to ja nie szukam nikogo, ale tak samo chcę poznać swój autorytet. Mimo że dużo nie czytam, że nie oglądam, że ja to, że ja tamto to będąc w sanatorium też się staram zachować jakąś kulturę. Może też jestem inna?

Widzę jak się przebierają, no to też muszę podporządkować się, by nie wyglądać jak czarna owca. Zresztą, też dobierasz sobie takie towarzystwo, gdzie możesz prowadzić dyskusję nie będę się zniżała do osób, które tylko mówią na chu i ku.

A po ludziach widać co sobą reprezentują. Najgorzej jak jest się przydzielonym do stolika podczas posiłków na stałe: Nie lubiłam osoby, która obok mnie siedziała, z Bielska-Białej, bo wszystkich krytykowała, nie szanowała. Facet jeden z kociej wiary też dawał swoje mądrości. Cztery osoby nas siedziało i tylko z jednym mogłam porozmawiać, opowiadał o chorobach, o wycieczkach. Ja znam swoją wartość, bo wiem, że człowiek bogactwo ma w sobie, jeżeli ktoś czuje się dobrze przy tobie to znaczy, że jesteś bogata wewnątrz. Co znaczy człowiek, gdy jest sam? Czy po sanatorium przyjaźnie trwają dalej? Po sanatorium to wszystko wygasa z biegiem czasu.

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W Krynicy Jestem na wczasach nad Kryniczanką, mieszkam w 111stym z Marią i Anką.

Bardzo się cieszę ze z nimi bywam, gdy Maria wstanie od jej kawałów już boki zrywam.

Ania kokietka bardzo troskliwa, chce nam namówić panów na randkę.

Może się uda - szanse niewielkie, bo panów mało sprytniejsze panie już na początku ich zatrzymały lecz my o żadnego się nie staramy, bo nogi jakby chcąc zrobić na złość - chodzić nie chciały.

Spacer z Marysią to rewelacja, idziemy wolno, miarowym krokiem - to relaksacja.

Czasem do przodu się pochylamy, by się nie garbić nawzajem się wnet poprawiamy.

Marysia ciągle Elę pilnuje i na spacerze Ela posłusznie plecy prostuje.

Trudno nam Ani kroku dotrzymać, my starsze panie wolimy przy ławce się częściej zatrzymywać.

Ania nas zawsze śmiechem rozbawi i medytuje jakby nas jeszcze trochę zabawić.

Ania Stefania filigranowa nawet najbardziej posępną minę rozgonić zdoła.

W Krynicy zawsze wiele atrakcji Tańce w Hawanie, Góra Parkowa, każdy jest w akcji.

Pani w ‚różowym’ deptakiem włada każdemu pod parasolem ofertę składa.

W budynku obok mieszka Marylka super dziewczyna rodem z Kleczewa koło Konina.

Często nawzajem się odwiedzamy i do przeszłości, do lat młodości, wszyscy wracamy.

Gdy się spotkamy nie próżnujemy, dzieło Marylki w butelce śliwki przetestujemy.

Test pozytywny, wysoka nota, lecz w Kryniczance testy wzbronione, choć jest ochota.

Przed posiłkami bilet wręczają, i na prelekcję w zamian za prezent nas zapraszają.

Turnus upływa, codzienność wraca, trzeba pomyśleć już o następnym i forsę składać.

Turnus upłynął, my mamy plany że już niedługo tutaj w Krynicy znów się spotkamy.

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62 Sharing Is Caring essay by Pablo Encinas, Kyra Michel graphics by participants Selma Bulić and Reyes Liébana

“After the passage of freedom that the 70s meant, in the 80s the cult of a healthy body began to develop. Health and perfection star in the ideals of a time when the gym becomes a temple at your service. The aggressiveness of hegemonic discourses arises in response to the countercultural and “debauchery” movements of the previous decades. AIDS is the last straw in this change in morality to establish, by virtue of health, a rigid discipline of the body.” *** Self-care is a current practice - a trend, a movement and an attitude - that has enjoyed a growing hype during the last years.

Self-care is a vague and broad concept in many aspects, except that it is inherently selfish and celebrated exactly for that. It is an encouragement towards the individualization of mental and physical health, related to both therapy and prophylaxis, and takes place during leisure time. Self-care does not replace our economic and social productivity, moreso, it is a tool to improve it and requires the existence of this leisure time in order to even be performed. It can be directed at healing from distinct wounds or dissatisfactions, but it is often used as a treatment for the way our daily lives leave us - drained, washed out, emotionally scattered. Guides and advice on how to achieve self-care flourish on all digital platforms. Each and every one of us is seeking for a different type of treatment for our lives, therefore self-care can take over a large variety of forms. Some of them include physical exercise as a strategy of optimization in mental and bodily functions.

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As this type of care is an activity performed to a large account by an individual alone, it becomes a commonly shared subject

on digital platforms. We celebrate our individuality and our resilience to daily stress by showing it online - or sharing it, as it is translated in the digital lingo.

As Manuel Delgado narrates in an article on account of the Barcelona Olympics, “the athlete’s body is a radically domesticated body, in which every millimeter of skin, each muscle, each joint, has been subscribed to the principles of harmony and rational order ”. Self-esteem begins to fluctuate in relation to comparison with others. This competitiveness reaches a point where health and personal achievements are valued, being in this sense representative, the publications of sports exploits on social networks.

What do we perform when we work out? What does it look like when real bodies carry out digitally formated routines, and how does it translate in the context of domestic space?

Gym Olympia is the place where this creativity is openly shared.

During the unfolding of the global health crisis caused by the pandemic, we provide a platform for people to share their home workout videos in order to follow daily international restrictions regarding sports. We encourage a debate on the physical confrontation of domestic spaces and their reinterpretation.

“GYM OLYMPIA ***** is not one specific gym but all of them.

It is an intermediate safe space amid the houses of your friends and yours. A projected imaginary architecture beyond you and your isolated home. It is a way to deconstruct your living room and your kitchen by rethinking it as something different.”

Sports currently operate under normative structures as architecture also does. Establishing Gym Olympia as a laboratory of fictions is an exercise to understand these mechanisms that instrumentalize human behaviour in order to trace a common goal: the construction of politically controlled bodies and subjects.

Gym Olympia is an extended plug-in of an aseptic healing capsule connected to the institution of the hospital. During the actual pandemic context public healthcare exceeded the boundaries of its specifically erected heterotopias, finally occupying local gyms and sport centers in order to host the crowds, whereas the issue of individual health has taken over your home. HEAL YOURSELF, DISINFECT YOUR BODY.

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Just move.

Shake your arms, twist your legs, bend your back, do all funny moves with your body, do whatever feels right.

You will become aware of the existence of many muscles that you have forgotten about.

When you add a pinch of grace and moderation in movements and breathing, and when your whole body becomes one - you will get yoga.

Selma Bulić, Montenegro

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So this is body combat at home in quarantine: It’s important to hae space enough to move your body, so the first step would be to transform (in this case) the living room by moving the main table and armchairs.

Now you can start!

Call some of your friends by videocall!

It’s always better to have company.

Put on the bandages.

They will protect your hands.

Put the choreo-video on youtube (bidy combat is always by LESMILLS so you will find original videos uploaded by them easily!).

Here’s a tip: SET THE VOLUME AT LEAST TO 80 (OR TO 100) SO YOU CAN PRETEND TO BE... in... the gym? maybe...

LET’S START!! (Even if you think you’ll die... you won’t. Keep on trying day by day!).

Reyes Liébana, Spain

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66 The Tender Materiality Of Bamboo essay by Nicholas Gervasi and Kristina Goncharov graphics by authors (editor's modification)

As new housing models, materials, and methods continue to spawn within the theoretical and built projects of architects and allied fields, we maintain that regenerative design can be taken further by a lifecycle framework applied to the occupants as well as the building materials. Focused on upward mobility and the architecture that can drive it, this proposal argues for the integration of work and living on the same campus in order to facilitate not only sustainable housing practices but also sustainable economics. Granting occupants more design decisions and construction knowledge, the resultant form will better represent evolving needs and affinities. We believe that urban, suburban, and to a lesser extent rural housing does not design for changed use patterns, disassembly, or non-traditional living scenarios. Moreover, the occupant has little autonomy to alter their living spaces to their varied desires. Finally adding a layer of human intelligence and mentorship to the site will provide a vessel for skill transfer.

The Context Urban developers’ propensity to create monotonous, fatiguing solutions can be seen in abundance globally. For example, in the United States, the fierce urban renewal schemes backed

by Robert Moses in the 1950s proved a lack in understanding of the residents for whom the housing was being built. The schemes segregated the financial strata of the communities and enhanced negative stigmas towards those who resided within.

Furthermore, the disconnection between housing and public activity created urban lulls and zones of disengagement.

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The ladder of Citizen Participation, developed by Sherry Arnstein, who was an author and worked in the U.S. Department

of Housing, Education, and Welfare (HUD), aimed to tackle the lack of understanding explored above. From her seminal article, the first rung (i.e. the least ‘participatory’ measure) is Tokenism – the participation of individuals in question is only symbolic and proves no weight in final decision-making situations.

Developments who follow Tokenism-based initiatives, often cause more disruption than the benefit they bring. We have all witnessed Tokenism whether it be community meetings that bear no significance to project goals or false predictions about how user groups will occupy a space.

Our proposal will focus on the city of Charlotte, North Carolina and its larger context of Mecklenburg County. This region embodies the challenges outlined above yet provides opportunity for re-conceived housing. Peering into the future, economists anticipate an influx of over a half million residents in Mecklenburg County by the year 2030. A significant worry for struggling locals, approximately 190,000 of which currently reside in unstable housing conditions. Since the release of the ranking in 2018, a number of local initiatives have been created and interest into sustainably developing the county has increased. However, those developing affordable housing solutions for the region are, as often seen elsewhere globally, failing to fulfil the true requirements for affordable housing and social housing schemes. At current rates of improvement, the future runs counter to the positive rhetoric supposedly driving these changes.

The Counter-Context Often affordable housing schemes lack stable, social support channels, are poorly maintained and residents have little say in the matter – by nature these environments drawback the opportunities of their residents. When these developments should be about fostering professional and personal growth of their residents. Developments must be positioned as homes for entry level professionals, teachers, engineers, public sector workers, economy drivers. To improve the standards of those who rely on affordable housing, the community as a whole must pivot its manner of thinking. To truly change the vicious cycle of affordable housing solutions, an approach which focuses on the development of the resident’s social and financial gains, promotes circular economies of knowledge, skills and opportunities and is viably able to provide for higher standards of living is required.

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Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are a good example of this new economic model. Here, the community are the stewards and owners of the assets on-site; they play a key role in managing resource distribution throughout the site, and in-turn, are re-instated with full ownership of profits harvested by the site.

Such initiatives permit for optimal community participation and fulfil the highest rung on Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation – Citizen Control. To achieve this rung, citizens must have full control over policies and plans affecting the site and hold leadership over the conditions of which amendments may be made by aliens to the site. CLTs significantly supersede typical government-backed schemes, which stand within the Nonparticipation and Tokenism ranks (rungs 1 and 2 respectively).

Combined with ownership of the assets and upward mobility options, regenerative design is the next overlay to this framework for affordable housing. Beyond sustainability, regenerative design is net positive impact and operates on the abundance model recently elucidated in The Upcycle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. This model, an example is the cherry tree and its leaf and fruit dispersal systems, is characterized by entities that produce nutrients beyond their own needs in order to foster ecosystem health. Allocating their own resources to provide for other species rather than their own optimization, they are critical regenerators of their regions.

Furthermore, by strengthening their host ecosystem, they imbue resilience into the system that can ensure their own survival later on. This creates a positive feedback loop that mutually benefits the tree and the ecosystem. We apply this method to the ecohouse by Instead of building materials transported across great distances to the site, they are grown in situ. The architecture wraps and frames these groves of supplies.

Sim Van der Ryn emphasized the importance of living systems in regards to the health and wellness of humans. Living in reference to biomaterials and architectural surfaces becoming a vessel for life. Hospital designs provide empirical evidence via patient recovery times of the benefits of greenery integrated into buildings. Practices that have been thoroughly immersed in Singapore across several typologies. He advocates for ecomorphic buildings which “copy the processes in nature and incorporate those into design” versus direct imitation of the forms of nature.

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Regenerative design originates with a hyperfocused examination

of the site in order to extract a an ecological mechanism to replicate in the architecture. This correlates closely to Ken Yeang’s position that eco-architecture goes beyond simply climate appropriate design interventions but also touches upon cultural cues from that area. Advocating for architects to think about how this drives the form of buildings, again not in a biomorphic manner but in Van der Ryn’s ecomorphic concept, although Yeang proposes it as eco-mimetics. However, both ideologies boil down to flows over aesthetics with the building steering and harvesting its site embedded qualities.

A New Context We have based our proposal on the typical structure of a Community Land Trust and 3 key requirements outlined in a framework approved by the City Council in 2018 to drive change. The requirements can be seen as follows: 1. Expand the supply of rental and owner-occupied housing 2. Preserve the affordability and quality of the housing 3. Support family self-sufficiency By combining the managerial-community approach of CLTs and the core requirements of the developments in question, we believe it is possible to turn the tide on engrained social stigmas to such housing solutions. Incorporating economic drivers into the schemes.

Regenerative architecture begins with the human spirit.

Housing is where the mind mends itself through thought and sleep. Arguably it is the only typology that activates the unconscious mind. Space that is detached from the temporal permissions offices, public realms, and institutions exert as it doesn’t have an expiration for the occupant.

Eco-homes are traditionally designed for an ascetic or minimalist lifestyle. The root of this symbolism is well intentioned – to encourage sustainable practices and avoid wasteful consumption. To instill a sense of organization and self-reliance with the occupant. In its most ideal state the objective is to transfer the physical tidiness of the space itself to the mind in order to unclutter it. However, this ignores a foundational driver within us to make places our own. To adorn walls with picture frames, place rugs across the floor, and arrange furniture into sequences – all to convey our

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expression inside the architecture. Although these percepts may appear to operate against one another, minimalism and ornament, they both reiterate our behavioral initiative to reflect or reveal ourselves onto the space around us. Even if it is done inadvertently through carelessness or laziness.

Thus the home is the quintessential place for adaptive changes and evolution during the course of inhabitation. Walls that shift and add space. Roofs that retract and later elongate. Windows and doors to make passageways and reflect new relationships amongst programmatic elements. Floors to step and slope as the landscape grapples with human occupation.

The growth cycle of bamboo creates a new supply of building materials each year. Due to the intrinsic rhizomatic qualities of this grass, each subsequent year the shoots grow taller yet remain the same diameter as before. This subsurface activity, which can be guided by trenches, is the generator for new culms to emerge. With a sixty day growth cycle and innate duplicative traits, bamboo multiplies itself stronger and stronger as the seasons go on. This philosophical connection to a person gaining mental strength through recovery is not to be overlooked.

Eastern practices of preservation, which involve cyclical reconstruction of cultural heritage in order to preserve authenticity of technique rather than of materials, are invoked as principles to inform site evolution. Carpentry skills will be developed in order to rebuild walls, roofs, and floors, as well as expand.

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72 EASA: The Journey essay by Louis Koseda graphics by Grégoire Guex-Crosier photography by Alexandra Polyakova

EASA — The journey I was kindly asked by the team organising SESAM Ukraine to contribute to their participant call out. To give some information to aspiring participants about EASA and perhaps even inspire them to join. I happily accepted. But I started writing some things like “Consider everything in EASA an experiment” and “Easa is a living laboratory of ideas.” Both of these are true: In easa there is no grading system or a set system or accountability for outcomes of the education provided. It gives a unique freeform opportunity to test different educational systems, processes and ideas. But there is a lot more to it - and i struggled to express this just with snappy straplines. Every point i made felt like i was missing an entire backstory to contextualise EASA within a larger cultural discourse. Sadly, despite running for 40 years, you would struggle to find any writing or article that effectively positions EASA in the context of radical and utopian pedagogies.

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EASA has seen the most talented architects in the world join and contribute, from every school in the world. To many it is a sacred and a shared learning space for an expansive European architecture community — that has handed down through consecutive generations of students and young professionals.

However, in order to retain authenticity and decentralisation EASA has made sacrifices. It never had any longterm paid staff.

It has also never articulated, shared and publicised outputs and learnings. This has always been a major systemic challenge amongst all decentralised and co-operative organising.

There is something incredibly romantic in this inability to contextualise itself, it creates a feeling of endless possibility, of total reinvention; it also means that EASA has successfully

continued to exist beyond the mainstream architectural or media lens and therefore resisted pressure to commodify itself. Occupying a perpetual position of importance for the architectural profession. It has become more like an unseen substructure, working from the bottom up. With this all said, i decided to write a concise history from my understanding to help the participants to make quicker sense of it Poly-arch It is possible to understand EASA by analysing some of the cultural DNA in the ideas at time of origin: 1970’s Britain an architect named Cedric Price created a bold project called Polyarch where he and a team of students converted a double decker bus into a sort of nationwide architecture education unit that operated between schools, its aim was to create an education revolution to “unite rather than separate the student community” acting as a quasi-union, semi-network — and mobile education institution. The lesson from Cedric is that there is an intimate link between free, mutual education platforms and an expansive view of the profession which leads to architectural unionism between different schools and professionals. The thing Cedric Price exposed is this; we must move beyond schools, companies and professional titles for the profession to retain it’s resilience. The format was successful in propagating a progressive, expansive attitude among students and formed the germ of the Winter Schools movement.

The Winter Schools The first Winter School was held in Sheffield in the late 70’s — moving from city to city in a decentralised way. This format of grass roots direction lasted for several years. Eventually the winter schools were replicated to become permanent fixtures of most schools; “it became like a badge of honour to have a winter school, and if you didn’t have one you were falling behind” and over time they almost became a part of the curriculum itself. Winter Schools were popular until the nineties but then “almost all of the winter schools were cut”.

This is partially because of new trends in educational practice, postmodernism gained purchase in the 1980s and 1990s, And the neoliberalisation of education brought budget cuts that meant that new, financially focussed entry requirements were introduced. As an idea that inherently resisted the commodification of education, the winter-schools represented a more emancipatory form of education. But this didn’t chime

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with the budget restrictions and emerging ideological condition of mainstream education system. It also defied the top heavy trends of the senior academic circles who regularly withdrew funded support.

In most cases academic modules align with job creators needs, who align their business model with the dominant economic system. Mutualism resists oppressed thinking that comes with this frame, and allows participants to voice opinions to progress new styles of architecture as they might relate to the real needs of the community, place and culture. It also has to be said that all senior academics have a career that depends a deterministic education model rather than a mutualist one.

Academics have a financial incentive to preserve the status quo. “I teach you - you don’t teach me, otherwise what would justify the salaried position?” Naturally the economic force is to entertain the more anarchic form of education as a novelty, but dismiss it ultimately. Like a radical shot to accompany a largely conservative education. The winter shool’s could be seen to act like a vaccine, A small exposure to allow students to experience, toy with, and ultimately avoid temptation.

This said; It is easy to blame a shift in ideology as a blanket reason for failure of a project, the most convincing criticism is that the Winter Schools allowed themselves to become over centralised and therefore rely too heavily on central university funding.

A network of ideas In 1981 EASA was founded by the then RIBA national student representative Geoff Haslam and Richard Murphy. They explicitly ‘Took take the format of the winter-schools but make them Europe wide’ Geoff being ‘somewhat of an anarchist’ was a peer of Colin Ward, and adopted many of his ideas into the initiating of EASA — especially those on social policy. Colin believed in maintaining a wholly distributed structure of mutual organisation. By keeping easa open, egalitarian and accessible, with genuinely consensus based management Geoff therefore managed to advance the ideas of those like Cedric Price, by mixing them with the clear practical lessons in functional anarchism from Colin Ward.

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A social licence for change Easa was not made out of leisure or egotism but out of urgent necessity. In the early 1980’s the city of Liverpool was riot torn and Richard and Geoffs school or architecture and was threatened with closure. Young Geoff and Richard together needed a way to politically evidence the value of their school to the authorities and the wider public. Richard Murphy being ”an incredibly talented politician” thought up an ingenious way to show consensus by inviting students from across Europe, every country, to a huge summer school — focussed on and in Liverpool. They delivered education but in the process created the right political scenario to evidence a clear majority in favour of actively saving the Liverpool School. To Richard then, the creation of EASA as an education system was a ‘carrot’ which allowed the team to build a very clear international consensus against closing the school to the local level powers. An incredible geometry for solidarity emerged.

In principal then, we can see easa is positioned amongst several optimistic pedagogies. Fundamentally being the middle point between a Union and an education platform, with student led education being the gateway to evidence some larger social or political licence. Can these two ideas, unions and education ever exist without one another? Probably not. We need to come together to get any real education, and bringing people together — always creates union between cultures. For architecture then these structures are still useful in that they lend themselves to train people, create new ways of thinking and doing architecture but whilst uniting people in a way that allows them to affect positive change — easa still underpins the upward movement for progressive change in the profession. It still exists and works! Over 40 years later is operating in the same distributed way; without a central body or even a registered charity. Each individual country has their own self assembling participating group which works locally to enable open access and genuinely consensus management. It’s continually evolving.

EASA has grown into arguably one the longest running, and largest mutual-aid educational systems continuously running not only in the field or architecture - but across disciplines. It is a gleaming example of what mutualist education really looks like and there are a rare few case studies like it. It not only evidences that mutual education systems can plausibly work over the long term, but are also are also more resilient than mainstream education institutions in upholding the core values of learning and teaching above catering for finance. What

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education really means.

To avoid it being a finishing school EASA operates almost as an undergrowth for the entire profession, under the radar for most of the general architectural discourse — but constantly there.

EASA today There are several high quality educational events throughout the year, including ‘small assemblies’ Intermediate national contact meetings (Like an AGM), and of course the EASA summer event where over 600 students attend. Easa events are expanding across the world “Beginning from what from what is local and immediate and linking in a with network with no centre and no directing agency, hiving off new cells as the original grows.”

Just one example are the new Zero Carbon Architecture groups growing from the EASA network and co-ordinating in every part of the world simultaneously to apply local level pressure, building from the “Young Architects Declare” strategies developed during the most recent event. Contributing to and being part of this incredible heritage is the best way to contextualise some of EASA’s integral ideas and processes.

To this day EASA has never made money from the sale of education — as many mainstream education institutions do today, defying the the rigidity of the social class based education system. The idea of universities commodifying social class forms a blockade in educational possibilities and limits the experimentation possible. The format is generally in favour of accessibility. And everyone involved does absolutely everything in a non-profit capacity — from helping with the washing up to helping with a jigsaw. This creates an upwards pressure to increase accessibility, age, gender or income balance, from all tutors, participants and organisers.

The activity in EASA is not prioritized according to any kind of centralised funding superstructure. Many education systems exist because of the research grants available. EASA exists despite them. This enables testing completely new methods of education, and in turn this allow new knowledge to be unearthed. Meaning that easa’s workshop accommodates in the most uncontrollable way the entire spectrum of the cultural dialogue. Filling a gap by occupying a key space in the global educational dialogue.

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The journey continues — advice for being part of EASA For everybody it is very important to stress that Easa is not structureless, it is liberal and mutualist, working in the trust you will do a brilliant job. As far as liberal is concerned: It is totally up to the tutor to design the structure. This is part of the challenge, how do we better the education system as a whole?

How does your workshop indicate a new, better way of doing things? Take the opportunity to advance important ideas.

As far as mutualism is concerned: Try to share your knowledge as deeply and as openly as you can. The event becomes rich only because and only everyone does shares openly. “I help you today, knowing somebody else some other day will help me” and if participants, organisers and tutors engage deeply and meaningfully with the same spirit, we all begin to experience a network effect that magnifies the learning and teaching potential. Easa also has a culture of young people teaching young people, so don’t be afraid to share what you know. You have a particular cultural background and knowledge — this is your time to share it. In any case. because ‘the world is evolving at such a fast pace that the gap between tutor and student needs to be closer and closer to ensure cultural relevance.’ EASA workshops disembark squarely from school or work, they tend to embrace a learning culture that is immersive, as-well as appreciating cultural informalities of the time, taking down formal boundaries to blur live work boundaries, towards the absolute creative exchange.

EASA Is a place to bring people together to make a real change.

This years EASA and SESAM is are both in very significant locations, in a very important part of the world — in a time when it needs us. Your attendance will spearhead this change — in the same way bringing EASA to Liverpool did over 40 years ago. We may have to to look back 40 years from now to realise this, but the political licence EASA opens up for positive change is vast, and the impact can be great. If only we can use it correctly we can be part of this city’s history as it finds it’s pathway, and change the city for the better. So operate with focus and generosity.

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// SESAM disclaimer

The 005 CARENESS issue with its theme was initially dedicated to SESAM, POLIKLINIKA - an architectural event which will take place in Slavutych, Ukraine from 26th May to 6h June 2021. The editorial team of kreatura.zine wants to be actively present in the student environment and support important initiatives, as we also receive an incredible audience while collaborating with other creatives. On this occassion, we'd like to introduce the event to the wider public. // EASA is an educational platform connecting students and professionals within the discipline of architectural construction and thought Europe. SESAM (Small European Students of Architecture Meeting ) is an overall name for all meetings, seminars and events within EASA platform. This year's edition is curated and organized by EASA Ukraine.

The concept for SESAM, POLIKLINIKA, is focusing on healthcare, and its relation to architecture at the physical, methodological, and metaphorical levels.

The theme aims to question the methods used in architectural practice to diagnose and prognose a ‘problem’.

The organizers propose three anatomic planes through which healthcare -maintenance or improvement of health-, will be addressed during Poliklinika through workshops and other discursive exchanges: prophylaxis, diagnosis and therapy.

The location for SESAM 2021 is the city of Slavutych, purposely built to rehouse the workers of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP) after the explosion of the fourth reactor in 1986 — the worst nuclear catastrophe in history. more info: www.sesam2021ukraine.com

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// 006 OPEN CALL

We are now accepting texts and graphic works for the 006 PROCESS issue.

The deadline for the submissions is 15/10/2020! // Audiovisual works In addition to 2d graphics, it is also possible to submit videos or sounds.

Please send your works in accurate formats.

Send a submision to: graphics.kreatura.zine@gmail.com // Texts We do not set the lower and upper limit of words, nor do we impose a form of the texts. Both essays and poetry can be published. In articles and essays, please include footnotes with the works cited by the author.

Please send your work in .doc format.

Send a submission to: essays.kreatura.zine@gmail.com

Kreatura.zine is a bottom-up non-profit initiative launched by the students and recent graduates, aiming to gather young creatives to give them space to speak out. The undertaken topics, often seen from extreme perspectives, are the opportunity to research and seek for the answers.

We are far from forming judgments; we present our current views, which may in the future change along with gaining knowledge.

We are trying to go beyond the schemes and take up the topics that are not obvious or yet fully researched.

We are open to collaborate with everyone who shares the same vision of development by making (and sometimes failing).

Agnieszka Kępa / Architecture student at Cracow University of Technology Ela Zdebel / Urbanism student at Technische Universiteit Delft Ewelina Cisak / Architecture student at Warsaw University of Technology

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