PLACE AND LOCALITY VS. MODERNISM
Examples of emerging new paradigms in architectural design

2nd training week for students and staff

This 2nd training week of the Archimedes project will take place in Athens, Greece. It will start on Saturday 16th of July and will last for 5 working days. We will have 5 students and 2 staff members from each school participating to the project: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, National Technical University of Athens, Vallès School of Architecture UPC BarcelonaTech, Sapienza University of Rome, University of Cyprus and Lusíada University.

The workshop will be held in Lavrio — a small town in south-eastern part of Attica, 60 km from Athens — and particularly in the Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP) which is a pioneer project of the National Technical University of Athens, reutilizing the installations of the old French Mining Company, in order to create a development pole in the region, gathering research and business activities.

1st training week at ETSAV, 2016

Archimedes project workshop and conference in Greece 

Programme

1. An intensive workshop (16-20 July) that will use as a vehicle architectural design themes focusing on innovative and experimental approaches to local cultural heritage and social problems and will inspect how new technologies and environmental issues can serve creatively the above themes. The basic question is "how the characteristics of a Mediterranean place can inspire contemporary architectural creation in both architectural design level, and in design of public space."

The development of the workshop will be based upon a detailed time schedule, academic contents and teaching approaches. As production of educational material, it will present the design of a short time module with the description of the educational paths and steps, with the texts to be consulted, the precedents to be analysed and collected, with the expected learning outcomes, with the type of exercise to be developed and the evaluation criteria to be used.

2. A parallel staff seminar (16-20 July) related to the students’ workshop that will discuss on the outcomes of the workshop and will focus on architectural design in relation to Culture, Society and Heritage. A training material will be prepared aiming to constitute a guide presenting views and aspects on education on the above.

3. An international conference (22-23 July) that will be organized in order (a) to disseminate the work of the project and to get a feedback from the broader academic European Regions and (b) to test how the questioning, the priorities set by the southern schools and their quest for a particular Mediterranean identity is perceived and understood by academics from other educational environments.

The conference aims to explore “How the architects’ profile in MEDES countries can be built through educational structures and pedagogical strategies and processes and how will local particularities be projected in the educational contents and methods so that the local and the international will collaborate constructively”.

Participants will be asked to make proposals related to fundamental aspects of curriculum structures in the Schools of Architecture of MEDES countries and propose recommendations concerning the structure of the parts of the curriculum, the distribution of the subject areas in the duration of studies, the distribution of time per subject area, the gravity of each one in the total amount of studies and the percentage between teaching time and students’ workload and the synergies between different modules.

Venue

Lavrio is a town in south-eastern part of Attica, Greece. It was famous in Classical antiquity for its silver mines, which was one of the chief sources of revenue of the Athenian state. It is located about 60 km SE of Athens, and N of Cape Sounion, situated on a bay overlooking the island of Makronisos. It is a sea port of much less importance than nearby Piraeus.

The general aims of Archimedes project

Elaborate teaching and pedagogical methods and strategies assuring the expected learning outcomes for MEDES countries (Mediterranean and European South).

How the architects’ profile in MEDES countries can be built through educational structures and pedagogical strategies and processes? How will local particularities be projected in the educational contents and methods so that the local and the international will collaborate constructively?

The workshop will be held in Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP) that is a pioneer project of the National Technical University of Athens, reutilizing the installations of the old French Mining Company, in order to create a development pole in the region, gathering research and business activities. The site extends in 250.000 s-m. A little more than 1/3 is already restored and functions as a hi-tech business and cultural centre for the south-east Attica. The area of LTCP is a unique monument of industrial architecture and archaeology.

Information about the workshop and seminar

Arrival of students: Saturday 15 July, Workshop 5 days: 16 July to 20 July.

Students’ departure: Friday 21 July. The program covers 275 euro per student for travel expenses and 385 euro for subsistence expenses.

Arrival of staff: Saturday 15 July, Workshop and seminar 5 days: 16 July to 20 July.

The hotel will be available until 23 July, if the staff members wish to stay also during the conference. Their expenses during the training week and during the Conference will be covered by themselves as the project covers 700 euro for subsistence activities — plus 275 euro, for travel expenses.

Archimedes organization has already made a reservation for the staff members as well as for the professors - partners of the participants schools, at the hotel President in Athens, 500m from a metro station. We would like to know — the soonest possible — how many people (staff members and professors - partners of schools) will use the above mentioned reservation. Every day, a bus will take staff members and professors from Athens to Lavrio and back. 

Information about the conference

Arrival of Conference participants: Friday 21 July, Conference days: Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 July, Departure of Conference participants Sunday 23 July afternoon. The event will start at 22 July 10.00 am and will end next day at 14.00 pm.

Archimedes organization has already made a reservation for the participants of the conference, at the hotel President in Athens, 500m from a metro station. Every day, a bus will take the participants from Athens to Lavrio and back. The cost of the hotel and the bus transfer will be covered by the organizers. The project will also offer a light lunch during the days of the congress.

Each institution can invite 8 persons who must be by preference teaching staff of the institution country, or any other country, not involved till now in the project. 
 

[Archi.medes International Conference program]
[More info at archi-med-es.net]