History - English

Kategoria: Instytut Architektury i Urbanistyki

Utworzono: wtorek, 04, luty 2014 11:04

Poprawiono: czwartek, 06, luty 2014 18:36

Osoba odpowiedzialna za wpis: Tomasz Waśniewski

RéA 2014

The Network of French and Central and East-European Schools of Architecture

 

Founding of REA

Soon after the fall of Berlin Wall, in September 1990 Director of the Languedoc-Roussillon School of Architecture in Montpellier organized a summer school, which intended to connect faculties, institutes and schools of architecture from southern France with those from Eastern and Central Europe.

 

Teams from twelve faculties of architecture participated in this first meeting. Four came from southern France (Bordeaux, Marseille, Montpellier, and Toulouse) and eight from Central Europe (Sofia, Dresden, Budapest, Wroclaw, Bucharest, Bratislava, Prague, Belgrade). At the time all delegates signed a memorandum addressed to the European Union authorities in Brussels, and especially to the Office of the TEMPUS Program. This memorandum proposed to extend the participation in the TEMPUS Program, then limited to Poland and Hungary, to other East-European countries, especially Bulgaria, GDR, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

All those countries were to participate in such activities as:

-          Experimental cooperation programs focused on didactic and research methods in       architecture, environment, development and civil engineering;

-          Generating financial means to enable the original signers of the memorandum to initiate the preparation of programs of cooperation;

-          Encouraging closer cooperation between ERASMUS and CMOOET programs, as potential partners in the TEMPUS program.

In addition, the memorandum of the twelve partners proposed the following program aimed at enriching the technical, cultural and scientific cooperation through:

-          Establishing a rotating annual conference with a focus on architecture, urban design, environment as well as teaching methods in these disciplines that would bring together all program participants;

-          Conducting an annual student competition based on teaching programs of each school, judged by an international jury of architecture teachers, with results announced during annual meetings;

-          Adoption of French as the official language in the work and in personal contacts.

The idea of a summer school (Summer University) as a cooperative venture between the French and the Eastern European architectural programs received much positive attention in the press. That enabled Director of Summer University to spell out its goals for the Network.  On 21 September 1991 he wrote:  “First, it is important to get to know each other. From our side we can show the other countries what is happening in France, how the public politics work, how we educate architects and urban designers, how the professional life is organized; from the other side one learns about the necessities and possibilities Eastern- and Central European countries. Such knowledge is necessary for the next steps in the cooperation.” At the same time: “We do not think about us as architecture missionaries in these countries, (…) we have a lot to learn from them.” This one sentence reflects the cooperative philosophy which has accompanied us throughout twenty years.

 

REA Today

At present, since the European cooperation programs opened toward the former Eastern bloc countries, new universities joined the Network:  Erevan, Lodz, Odessa, Moscow, Skopje, Baku, Cracow, Ljubljana, Vilnius, and in France: Clermont-Ferrand, Lille, Rouen, Lyon and Grenoble.

Our meetings were initially held bi-annually: Bordeaux (1992), Budapest (1994), Marseille (1997), Bucharest (1999), Wroclaw (2001). Later they became annual: Lille (2002),  Sofia (2003), Toulouse (2004), Moscow (2005), Marseille (2006),  Erevan (2007),  Rouen (2008), Baku (2009), Paris (2010), Bucharest (2011), Budapest (2012), Grenoble (2013).

Currently a meeting of REA Network is annual and takes one week. It always is organized by one of the partner schools. To this meeting every network school delegates two teachers and two students.  In France the expenses are covered by the Ministry of Culture and Communication, local industries, and other institutions.

From the beginning the REA meetings have had a double focus:

-          A conference based on chosen theme with presentations and discussions by professors or school administrators;

-          A competition of projects developed by students of the 3rd or 4th year with prizes. Projects presented are prepared during the academic year in home institutions. The       student competition reveals didactic methods used in individual schools and encourages discussion. During the REA meeting students also form numerous international groups and participate in a 24-hour workshop. 

 

1992 BORDEAUX

City, architecture and water

Architecture and housing environment

 

1994 BUDAPEST

Architecture, urban design and rehabilitation

 

1997 MARSEILLE

Learning process of design: how to start the process of design - formulation of the design idea and achievement of the intended goal

Urban restructuring and development beyond hyper-centre

 

1999 BUCHAREST

Learning process of urban design and architecture, building codes, methods and the practice in learning process

City fringe, architectural intervention for revitalization of the peripheral zones in Bucharest

 

2001 WROCLAW

Change of the cities in the context of European integration

Urban environment adaptation for the needs of the people in the so- called ‘third age’ in the city centre

 

2002 LILLE

Industrial heritage in Europe

Reconversion of brownfield areas in Roubaix

 

2003 SOFIA

Local identity of architecture and urban design and learning process

Land development of Veliko Tŭrnovo

 

2004 TOULOUSE

Development of places and connections

Stairs in a city

 

2005 MOSCOW

Urbanization of peripheral zones of the megalopolis

The conversion of an old monastery in Moscow into an architectural institute

 

2006 MARSEILLE

Housing estates

Local transport

 

2007 EREVAN

Small cities in transition: modernizing needs and identity conservation

Transformation  of the main square in a small city near Erevan

 

2008 ROUEN

Water as a factorof the sustainable development

Architecture of the public space of a river embankment

 

2010 PARIS

University campus

Campus of the future

 

2012 BUDAPEST

Transformation of city centers

 

2013 GRENOBLE

Pedagogical experiment with a critical use of references

 

In 2014 the RéA meeting with a theme “Ville sur la ville” / “A City over a City” will be held in Łódź.