The Rurápolis 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 predictions. This reactivation of rural ruins is materialised through the use of ecological construction techniques, starting from the ground, from the earth.
After its first edition in Navarra, the Summerschool Rurápolis 2024 proposes an immersion in a comparative territory, this time located in Asturias. Summerschool Rurápolis is an extramural programme of ÉNSA Versailles in collaboration with LABoral Centro de Artel and is an integral part of NO-CITY, an open interuniversity educational programme. This next edition of the Summerschool Rurápolis will last ten days in the summer of 2024 and is open to international architecture students, as well as students from other disciplines and any professional interested in the subject.
Summerschool Rurápolis 2024 will include:
– A meeting with renowned European personalities at LABoral Centro de Arte, accompanied 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-industrial conditions, the architecture of re-employment, the architecture of the land, architecture in times of crisis.
– Two days of prospective exploration of the post-industrial, peri-rural and natural territory of Asturias.
-A construction workshop in an old mining pit in 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 Rurápolis.
-A performance that will inaugurate the collectively designed architectural objects, making viable and attractive the possible reactivation of abandoned rural ruins.
-An exhibition of the research and creation process of Rurápolis (concept maps, photographs, videos, drawings and workshop results) planned for 2025 at LABoral Centro de Arte.
Rurápolis was a project selected in the V Convocatoria de Residencias LABoral Impulsa organised by LABoral Centro de Arte and Gijón Impulsa in 2023.
