Summerschool RURAPOLIS 2024 (29.08.-7.09.2024)

This Summerschool is a great opportunity for students to attend conferences and round tables with well-known personalities on a European and regional scale, to discover a territory ( known as the 'Natural Paradise', Asturias), and to receive technical training in architectural practices that are undergoing a revival, such as rammed earth. The registration fee covers supervision and participation in the workshop, supplies and nearby accommodation with breakfast, as well as part of the transport costs during the event.  

>>> Link to the Summerschool Rurapolis web page with the programme and registration details.

The Rurapolis Summerschool is an innovative format that combines architectural theory and practice around the themes of rural depopulation, the evolution of post-industrial territory and the learning of sustainable construction techniques in wood and raw earth. 

The Summerschool is part of a wider research process entitled Rurapolis. The project is based on the strong presence of rural ruins in Spain, where thousands of villages have been depopulated as a consequence of the rural exodus. The research process proposes a networked reactivation strategy for abandoned towns, villages and industrial sites, whose location in the heart of a preserved topography and moderate climate can make them viable and attractive again, especially in the face of current and future climate change forecasts. This revival of rural ruins is materialised through the use of ecological building techniques, starting from the ground, from the earth.

After its first edition in Navarra, Spain, the Summerschool Rurapolis 2024 offers an in- mersion in a comparative territory, this time located in Asturias. The Summerschool Rurapo- lis is an external programme of ÉNSA Versailles in collaboration with the University of Oviedo and the Centre for Art and Industrial Creation LABoral. It is also an integral part of NO-CI- TY, an open inter-university educational programme. This next edition of Summerschool Ru- rápolis will last ten days in the summer of 2024 and is open to international architecture stu- dents, as well as students from other disciplines and any professional interested in the subject.

The Summerschool Rurápolis 2024 will include: 

• a series of lectures and round tables by renowned European personalities, ac- companied by round tables where there will be open debate on the topics addressed during the lectures: rural depopulation and the possible reactivation of its ruins, peri-rural and post-indus- trial conditions, rammed earth architecture, architecture of ruins, architecture in times of crisis
• two days of prospective exploration of the post-industrial, peri-rural and natural territory of Asturias
• a construction workshop at the Pozu Espinos (a former mining site located in a small village of the Turón Valley) focusing on the use of wood, recycled materials and learning various construction techniques in raw earth. The aim of this format is to develop a constructive intelligence to create, within a week, small architectures/platforms/furniture emblematic of the Rurapolis.
• a performance that will inaugurate collectively designed architectural objects, making viable and attractive the possible reactivation of abandoned rural ruins.

PROGRAMME Summerschool RURAPOLIS

DAY 1 · Thursday 29.08.2024 · LABoral, GijónPresentation, lectures and round table 

10:00 - 12:00 · Presentation & introduction of the Summerschool Rurapolis 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

DAY 2 · Friday 30.08.2024 · LABoral, GijónLectures & 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 to Carreño with the Asturian Hórreo Association / Tentemoz@s

DAYS 3 & 4 · Saturday & Sunday 31.08.-01.09.2024· 

Exploration of the Asturian territory with the teacher’s team of ÉNSA Versailles – Universidad de Oviedo – ESDAC/ESNE – NO-CITY

DAYS 5 to 9 · Monday to Friday 02.-06.09.2024· 

10:00 - 18:00 · Raw earth workshop at the Pozu Espinos - Valle de Turón

DAY 9 · Friday 06.09.2024 

20:00 · Opening night at the Pozu Es pinos ·

Performance in situ by the artist formation lofácil

DAY 10 · Saturday 07.09.2024 

10:00 - 15:00 · Final review, storage & departure

*These activities areopentothe public 

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