snowy bigz

kisses dubi

:)))))))

First it was private letter, but then I've decided to paste it here. In autumn the SESAM 2005 in belarus was announced by me. But later it was abolished. Why? There were two reasons: 1)I was going to make it in collaboration with the BASA - Belarusian Architectural Students Association, but I've found that their current membership is too buerocrathic to do anything real... 2)We where supposing that Sesam will be financed with our university. But we have just standard grant from university to organise student's activity. But it is fully used with BASA for a smaller summer actions. Hmm... it sounds almost like previous reason...

But! We are inviting EASA people, especially NC's, to visit our small spring/summer activities. I HOPE, IT WILL GET OUR YOUNGER GENERATION TO MOVE FORWARD!!! The activities are usually 1-2 weeks long, dedicated to reconstruction of historical buildings (most of all - medieval castles). Food, drinks and transport in Belarus are ultra-chip,and ultra-hospitality is the main feature of our people! Smb. is interested in?

anybody know where i could get "my architect" the movie on the net?

Hello,

first I want to say I am very happy easa still exists and keeps going strong. It seems a long time ago, being a "professional" for almost ten years now, and having participated in an easa as "cro-magnon" as Marseille - héritage et créativité. Easa has formed me as a person - through workshops, travels and even co-organizing one. But what formed me most was the people I met and spoke to. About architecture, politics, life, children, anything you can think of. Architecture won't change the world. People can do so... The mere thought of bringing together all these students and interests is very powerfull already. It is good that a new team, ever evolving, is taking on a new easa every year. There will always be newcomers and veterans, as in the "real" world. But easa will also always spark new ideas and international contacts and understanding, which might be the most important factor in the easa movement. Getting to know that people from abroad are also just people. That the only place where borders exist is man's mind. That you are living good memories.

Please keep the spirit and don't institutionalize. There are already far too much institutions around. Play and enjoy!

Yours,

Iwert.

some thoughts ... [as a reponse to jerome's and dunk's post]

Set into the world in 81, easa is a monster, a body without organs …. Everchanging, rhizomatic, always on the quest for its own identity, always struggling with itself for its sense, living at the edge to a Club-Med-like kindergarden for architecture students and still aiming at raising its awareness and quality level.

It’s often a precarious balance – people complaining about it’s easy going and thinking it to be just a pretext for having fun and internationl flirts (they did so already 20 yrs ago).

Though it is still alive and unique – as far as I know – in its form. Right in the early eighties – far before the internet era, they talked about networking. Far before eMails and chats and blogs they did so by snail-mail and fax.

It is a beast – the head in the clouds but feet on the ground. For being set up every year by a new team, being confronted to the same logistical and organisational probs anew, it is a fact that knowledge transfer from one year to the other might be the major lack. The beast’s memory is short. Three to four years at best – as long as the “dinosaurs” stick to it. There is nearly no “best practice”, no long term experience of more experienced members like in a firm that always grows and builds and expands[*].

Just the “easa-guide”, a document hardly read by even the NCs or organizers, holds grasp of the past practical experiences. The monster’s weakness might be one of its strengths. The same problems are always thought over anew – sometimes with astonishing results. It gives orga-teams the chance to experience an always unique and new experiment.

As such, paces of “evolution” towards a higher professionality are hard to take. Whilst they’ve been claimed for nearly right from the start in the 80s, it would need a more institutionalised EASA to do so. The monster would be compelled getting organs, a skeleton, with professiona archiving, knowledge transfer, it would need to become a kind of firm, an agency or foundation with a registered trademark, a corporate image and design, its lawyer and accountant.

But it would loose its soul of experimental “from students for students” alter-academical character, and maybe even it's spirit?

cheers aLx_Be

ps: this is an invitation to all that feel concerned to read the easa guide - as stated at the incm_bgd - and the archive ... matter of lenghten easa's short memory ;-) [*] which is actually a typical ark's problem: always starting from zero, a scratch when designing ... whereas some migt think "aren't the housing probs all the same? why always start from zero?" .... others might think that this is what makes designs unique ...

city shit-> bio plant -> food production

“Buildings Like Trees, Cities Like Forests” is a phrase from William McDonough, who is an internationally renowned designer and one of the primary proponents and shapers of what he and his partners call 'The Next Industrial Revolution.'

...We hope it is the design strategy of the future.” www.mcdonough.com

Local Bio-Sewage Treatment: Community scaled waste and grey water treatment centre, separate from existing civic infrastructure grid. gif from www.umanitoba.ca case study www.cf.ac.uk

danish PLOT have also a few clever ideas from their updated smart new site http://www.plot.dk/ see their film here http://www.plot.dk/projects/hav/superharbour.wmv

Fritjof Capra, PhD; Founding Director, The Center for Eco-Literacy: can be watched on film here: "berkley lectures: education for sustainable living- stereo webcasts" easa.antville.org

curitiba in brazil is one of the best examples of how to make a city more sustainable http://www.sustainable.org/casestudies/international/INTL_af_curitiba.html http://www.solutions-site.org/cat7_sol110.htm

"The Zero Emissions City of the Future" film can be watched here www.ictpl.net

has anyone got other good examples done or proposed for urban ecology

Hi All! Happy to be there again! Happy new year, marry Christmas etc! Sorry, I was out of the EASA community for some months - I'd a lot of things to do. That's why I'll ask some stupid questions to organizers and NC's: 1.)Who is the contact of organizing team? 2.)What should I do to register my workshop theme for the EASA'05? 3.)As I know Switzerland is not a country of Shengenian declaration. But me and some people from my country are a principal hitch-hikers, so, we need a Shengenian visa too. Can someone of the Shengenian countries NC's invite us for the time of EASA?