A territorial and constructive immersion to reenchant the future in the face of rural depopulation.
The Summerschool Rurapolis 2024 has been a great adventure!
Click here to see the video of the Summerschool Rurapolis 2024.
Click here to learn more about the investigation behind the Summerschool Rurapolis 2024.
After a first edition in Navarre, Spain, the Summerschool Rurapolis comes back, this time in the multifaceted region of Asturias. The Summerschool Rurapolis is an offsite programme of the ÉNSA Versailles in collaboration with the University of Oviedo and LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre, developed during the Laboral Impulsa residency programme. It is also an integral part of the NO-CITY open inter-university educational programme. The Summerschool Rurapolis will be structured around a series of lectures with well-known personalities at European level, and prospective explorations of the territory where the students will be sent on different paths in order to discover on their own way the multiple post-industrial, peri-rural and natural landscapes of Asturias.
Then, small architectures/artefacts/totems made of raw earth and mixed techniques will be developed on a former mining site in a small village of the Valle de Turón in the centre of Asturias. The training will be carried out by a team of professionals. At the end of the stay, the collectively designed architectural objects will host a cultural and festive event, making the reactivation of neglected rural and post-industrial installations on this territory possible and attractive. The Summerschool Rurapolis is open to architecture students and to anyone interested by the thematic.
SUMMERSCHOOL PROGRAMME
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Pozu Espinos, Valle de Turón • Asturias, Spain
Thursday, 29th of August -
Saturday, 7th of September 2024
LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial • Gijón
LECTURES
Sergio Sebastián • Architect, author of the award-winning project for the preservation of the abandoned village of Ruesta (Aragon, 2017-2020) and the adjacent renovation of the San Juan de Ruesta Hermitage (2021).
Déchelette Architecture • The studio promotes thrifty, inventive architecture that is faithful to their ecological convictions, which guide the development of their projects: sensitive organisation of spaces, economy of materials, respect for the landscape and sustainability of uses..
Jaime Izquierdo Vallina • Graduate in geological sciences and former Commissioner for the Demographic Challenge of the Principality of Asturias, author among other several publications of the book "The agropolitan city, the cosmopolitan village" (Ed. KRK, 2019).
Susanne Stacher • Architect, researcher and professor at the ÉNSA Versailles, author among others of the book "Architecture in times of crisis. Current and historical strategies for designing new worlds" (Ed. Birkhäuser, 2023).
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ROUND TABLES
The round tables will be the occasion to open the debate around the thematics raised during the lectures: rural depopulation and possible reactivation of its ruins, peri-rural and post-industrial conditions, architecture of the reuse, architecture of the earth, architecture in times of crisis. The two round tables will be lead by NO-CITY.
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EXHIBITION
An exhaustive exhibition planned for March 2025 at LABoral will recopilate the whole RURAPOLIS research process on the territories of the Pre-Pyrenees and Asturias, and the work realized with the students during the two Rurapolis Summerschools. It will also highlight the work of NO-CITY : NO-CITY is an open inter-university educational programme. NO-CITY is an impossible assumption. NO-CITY travels across diverse urban conditions of the planet. NO-CITY aims to look at the urban condition by difference. NO-CITY questions what can and what cannot be contained in the city.
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GUIDED TOUR
A guided tour will take the Summerschool participants to visit the Hórreo Interpretation Centre in Bueño, and the hórreos (a typical vernacular construction of Asturias) of the village of Bueño with members of the Asturian Hórreo Association, who have been carrying out in the last years an important work on the field, involving with the inhabitants and dedicated profesionals. Their purpose is to revive this architectural typology, which is a testimony of an essential intangible heritage for the rural territory of Asturias.
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TERRITORY
Two days of exploration of the post-industrial, peri-rural and rural territory of Asturias, with different itineraries where each group of students will receive a specific task to work on and report using cartography, drawings, interviews, etc.
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WORKSHOP
The construction workshop using wood, reused materials and raw earth techniques, will be lead by the architects Macario Iglesias (Bioconstrucción Asturies) and Anna Laura Bourguignon. The planned artefacts will be built on one of the former mining sites of the Valle de Turón, in the centre of Asturias.
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PERFORMANCE
lofácil offers a live musical production session in which they will perform their songs, exploring the relationship between synthetic atmospheres conjured from previously captured acoustic coordinates (Reclaimed Space) and the Present Space, whose inhabitance at a certain time allows the performance to come to life in the flesh.
lofácil is the musical project of María Barrena and Carlos de Arquer, who, having met at Politécnica School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM), write and produce their songs al dolor and la esperanza from Foncalada, Oviedo.
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PROGRAMME OVERVIEW
DAY 1 · Thursday 29.08.2024 · LABoral, Gijón
10:00 - 14:00 · 17:00-19:00 ·
Presentation & introduction of the Summerschool Rurapolis
Lectures & Round table
12:00-13:00 · Lecture Jaime Izquierdo Vallina
13:00-14:00 · Lecture Susanne Stacher
17:00 - 19:00 · Round table moderated by Ícaro Obeso Muñiz, lecturer in Geography at the University of Oviedo
DAY 2 · Friday 30.08.2024 · LABoral, Gijón
Lectures & Round table
10:00-11:00 · Lecture Sergio Sebastián
11:00-12:00 · Lecture Déchelette Architecture
12:00 - 14:00 · Round table moderated by No-City
Afternoon: guided visit with the Asturian Hórreo Association
DAYS 3 & 4 · Saturday & Sunday 31.08.- 01.09.2024 ·
Exploration of the Asturian territory
DAYS 5 to 9 · Monday to Friday 02.- 06.09.2024 ·
Raw earth and wood workshop in the Valle de Turón
DAY 9 · Friday 06.09.2024
Opening night · Performance in situ by lofácil
DAY 10 · Saturday 07.09.2024
Final review, storage & departure
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REGISTRATION · SUMMERSCHOOL RURAPOLIS · only 2 /35 places available!
Registration open until 15.08.2024 within the limit of the number of places available
Please fill in the form in order to complete the registration. Payment by bank transfer after acceptance.
Regular fee: 500€
* Travel, and meals (except breakfast) are to be met by the participants
The accomodation with breaksfast at the student residency of Mieres is included in the participation fees.
The lectures and the final performance will be open to the public.
No cancellation will be accepted one month prior to the beginning of the programme (from July 29th)
AN ITINERANT SUMMERSCHOOL • PRACTICAL INFOS
TRAVEL
We'll start the two first days of the Summerschool at the LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre, which is located in the city of Gijón. Then, we'll spent the two following days on various sites of the Asturian territory. Finally, the construction workshop will take place on a former mining site in a remote village of the Valle de Turón - the nearest city (10km distance) being the city of Mieres. All the locations are easily accessible by public transport. The regional airport Aeropuerto de Asturias (OVD) connects the region with many European destinations. The high-speed train line AVE from the national company Renfe connects Madrid to Gijón/Oviedo in 3,5hours. The bus company Alsa also offers several routes on the national and regional territory.
During the Summerschool, low cost public transport will be privileged in order to support the regional facilities and provide a maximum of flexibility to discover the territory in the most authentical way and for example, enjoy the Spanish Summer evenings after school!
* The travel costs to and during the Summerschool are to be met by the participants.
We recommend you to apply as groups of five or individuals for the Culture Moves Europe programme that could possibly cover your travel costs. We do not guarantee the outcome of the procedure.
ACCOMODATION
You will be hosted in individual bedrooms with a private bathroom at the Student Residency of Mieres, which also provides the breakfast and is well connected to all the facilities and the workshop site by public transport.
LANGUAGE
Main language will be English. Spanish will be used in the context immersion when necessary.
The Summerschool Rurapolis is based on the thesis project - Rurapolis - Rethinking the Periphery through rural ruins : Comparative project research on two depopulated areas of northern Spain: the Pre-Pyrenees and the Cantabrian Mountain Range by Salomé Wackernagel
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Practice-led research PhD · CY Research School / LéaV, France
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Direction · Susanne Stacher · LéaV | Co-supervision · Juan-José Pons Izquierdo · Universidad de Navarra (UNAV)
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This work is supported by the Cergy-Paris University (CY) Graduate School Humanities, Creation, Heritage « Investissement d’Avenir ANR-17-EURE-0021 » and the research laboratory of the Architecture School of Versailles, France (LéaV/ÉNSA-V)
The RURAPOLIS Summerschool is registered on the platform www.summerschoolsineurope,eu
The RURAPOLIS Summerschool is featured on www.archdaily.com
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