The investigation project Rurapolis takes place in the cross-border territory of the Atlantic Pyrenees (France) and Navarre (Spain). Rural ruins are used as a tool for regional development in the context of the climatic and societal challenges we are now facing.

A platform, which can be interpretated as an amphitheatre, or also a totem, made of raw earth, local stones, sand and lime, has been built in the framework of the Summerschool Rurapolis in the abandonned village of Egulbati, Navarra. The realization of a small architecture during this collective workshop allows the development of the first *earthy* milestone of the Rurapolis, and a more general thinking about sustainable constructive intelligence.

The participants were trained step by step in the rammed earth technique, which is experiencing a revival in contemporary architecture because of its constructive, aesthetic and thermal qualities, and also because it represents a real alternative, collectively and ecological, in the face of environmental issues. Considering the short timing and some technical issues, it resulted impossible to reach the desired height of our construction - formerly totem, the object becomes an altar. At the end of the Summerschool Rurapolis, the collectively designed architectural object hosted a cultural and festive event that made the reactivation of the abandoned village in this territory possible and attractive: the  performance Terra by dancer and choreographer Galina Rodríguez, in which she highlights, through an itinerant intervention, the territory on the fringes and the peripheral feeling of the exiled people, who are constantly looking for a land to put down roots.

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→ Read: Rurapolis Platforms

→ See also: RURAPOLIS /

Summerschool Rurapolis