International workshop ConnectA 2024

RISEBA FAD students and tutors participated in the international student workshop ConnectA 2024, organized by ERASMUS partners CEU UCH (CEU Cardenal Herrera University) in Valencia, Spain, from 29.01.24-02.02.24.  This year's workshop was dedicated to designing a “beach scenography” for a coastal area, and was led by the founding architects of the Athenian studio AREA (Architecture Research Athens). 

The AREA studio (Architecture Research Athens) understands architecture as a form of public dialogue with a transformative capacity. Created in 2006, its founders define innovation as a critical interpretation of existing physical and cultural forms and conceive each architectural project from the dialogue between designers and clients, to broaden the perspective of both parties. AREA's work has received an Honorable Mention in the 2017 ΗIA Architecture Awards, has been nominated for the 2017 Mies van der Rohe European Award and has been distinguished among the best buildings and projects of 2013 and 2015 by DOMES International Review . They have also received numerous distinctions in public and private project competitions in Greece and abroad.

The challenge posed by the professionals of the Athenian studio AREA to the students of the different courses of the Degree in Architecture at the CEU UCH has been the creation of a space for public enjoyment on the beach , in contrast to the tendency towards overcrowding in the areas of coast, which restaurants and hotels fill with sun loungers, hammocks, umbrellas, beach bars... taking away space for people. All this with minimal intervention, through the design of a "beach scenography" with a light and removable structure.

AREA architects have given the students creative freedom to create the scenography on the beach, through a collective, light, and reversible structure. The students have been facing the project of construction that dialogues with the sand, with the topography, and with the way of inhabiting the beach through rest, play, reading, picnics, etc. To do this, they have had a box with sand and some wooden sticks as common material, which they have completed with a second free-choice material to complete the designed scenery.

Two of RISEBA FAD 1st-year students – Līva Katrīna Pavārnieka and Reinijs Tukmanis were awarded with honorary mentions.

More about AREA office can be found here-  https://areaoffice.gr/