It has been another fantastic season for INTBAU’s educational initiatives. Read on to find out more about the four ambitious programmes that took place from June to August of this year.
Following on from the success of last year’s summer schools, the geographical spread and diversity of participants on each of the programmes in 2023 was again impressive. This summer, students joined from over 20 countries on 6 different continents. These included Portugal, Armenia, Slovakia, Spain, Australia, China, Brazil, Poland, USA, UK, Kenya, Estonia, Guatemala, Italy, Serbia, Norway, Mexico, India, Belgium, Pakistan, and Colombia, amongst others.
Among the highlights of this year´s educational initiatives is the awarding of the INTBAU 2023 Richard H. Driehaus Scholarships, aiming to identify and support promising students in the field of architecture and building traditions.
Ms. Mrudula Mangalkar, Ph.D. student from COEP Technological University Pune, India, and one of the recipients of the INTBAU 2023 Driehaus Scholarship, was certain that her experience at the INTBAU summer school in the Netherlands will root deep in her, allowing her to expand her horizons towards her Ph.D research topic “Investigating influence of urban density on livability in the urban areas”. Mrudula was especially complimentary about the support received from expert tutors whilst attending the course. In her blog describing the experience, she gave particular ‘thanks to the sponsors and mentors,’ who encouraged participants to push themselves across the three-week period. Read Ms. Mangalkar’s blog about her experience in the summer school.
Ms. Mrudula Mangalkar alongside her team, showing their final proposal for the regeneration of an urban area in Utrecht.
Drin Lolja, a high school student from Albania, who, along with Ms. Mangalkar was selected as recipient of the INTBAU 2023 Richard H. Driehaus Scholarship, stated that the three weeks he spent in Utrecht gave him the opportunity to improve his measured drawing skills, his sketching, and his knowledge of the orders, architectural styles, proportion, and perspective that otherwise would have been unable to ascertain online. Read Drin’s blog Discovering the Wonders of Architecture: My Unforgettable Journey at the INTBAU Summer School in Utrecht 2023.
Drin Lolja presenting his final works to the panel of judges.
Virgil Declercq, a university student majoring in architecture at the University of Leuven, and who was selected as recipient of the INTBAU 2023 Richard H. Driehaus Scholarship for the Bruges Summer School of Architecture & Crafts, had an exceptional participation during the course, actively engaging in both theory and practice, and driving reflection and cooperation among his fellow students.
Virgil Declercq presenting his final works to an audience composed of experienced practitioners from the INTBAU network and beyond.
Through attending these courses, students were not only able to learn about the local craftmanship and local architecture in the host country but were also inspired to reflect on the role of their own country’s rich traditions and how continuing to promote these ways of designing and building could contribute to better place making.
Flavio Díaz Mirón, an urbanist from Mexico who attended INTBAU Netherlands’s “Let’s Build a Beautiful City”, stated that he will be using the knowledge gained during the three weeks in the programme to promote the traditional architecture in his country through the local INTBAU Chapter.
For other participants, the summer schools showed them the benefits of belonging to an international network of like-minded peers and learning from each other. Riccardo Buratti, an architect based in Gent and student-tutor at the Bruges Summer School of Architecture & Crafts had this to say: “All of my fellow students had something special to offer, specific abilities, intense energies, youthful enthusiasm. Amazed, I observed as they improved their own skills over the seven-week program”.
You can find out more about upcoming opportunities and get involved in future programmes via INTBAU Education. Below is a summary of the programmes in 2023.
INTBAU 2023 Educational Programmes in review
INTBAU Australia’s Enduring Design Masterclass
The first of its kind in Australia, the Enduring Design Masterclass is the result of a partnership between the Prince’s Trust Australia, INTBAU Australia and the University of Queensland. The Masterclass is an accredited Master of Architecture programme that combines expert instruction from traditional craftspeople and Indigenous elders with hands-on experience in traditional trades, architectural composition and heritage practice. The Enduring Design Masterclass gave students the opportunity to reconnect with Australia’s rich and diverse enduring design traditions and demonstrated how traditional knowledge can contribute towards building more sustainably. The course ran for its third year this year from 26 June – 19 August with a two-week hands-on intensive running from 3 – 14 July.
INTBAU Belgium Summer School of Architecture & Crafts
La Table Ronde de l’Architecture, host to INTBAU Belgium, delivered its fourth Bruges Summer School of Architecture & Crafts, an ambitious seven-week intensive course running throughout July and August. Nadia Everard, President of La Table Ronde, led this initiative and curated a varied programme which included observational drawing, walking tours, sketching, hands-on craft workshops and in-person seminars with contributors from the INTBAU network and local practitioners in Belgium.
The summer school focused on issues pertaining to the built environment in Belgium and beyond, highlighting the importance of sustainable and durable, traditional design and placemaking, offering students the opportunity to improve their hand drawing skills.
Rafael Manzano Summer School in New Traditional Architecture
In Spain, in the farmhouse of Can Catá near Barcelona, INTBAU Spain and INTBAU Portugal hosted the 9th consecutive Rafael Manzano Summer School in New Traditional Architecture.
During the two-week programme, students from 20 countries participated in studies on local urban planning, architecture and traditional construction details of the Barcelona region, guided by experienced architects, academics and masters in traditional crafts. This work was then used as a basis for both creating new traditional designs and conserving the site’s built heritage. In this way, drawing and measuring by hand buildings, streets, gardens and construction details in Can Catá and in all the places visited was the main activity during the first week of the program.
On the basis of this initial work, and also responding to some of the needs presented by the inhabitants of Can Catá, a proposal was designed, with the collaboration of all the participants, to improve the farmhouse and its gardens and a new urban development next to the Church of Sant Iscle i Santa Victòria, where a small town existed in the Middle Ages.
Guests from partner organizations and local authorities had the opportunity to appreciate the students’ final work at an exhibition held in Can Catá to celebrate two weeks of intense work, during which students were awarded with participation certificates.
Let’s Build a Beautiful City Summer School, Utrecht 2023
Lastly, drawing from the success of the 2022 programme last year, INTBAU Netherlands hosted the ‘Let’s Build a Beautiful City’ summer school in Utrecht. This INTBAU summer school took place from 17 July to 3 August. The three-week programme included lectures, practical exercises, site visits, and design work for a cohort of 25 students from 11 countries. Leading architects, academics, and urbanists from the Netherlands were joined by visiting tutors from INTBAU’s international network and fellow summer school programs. INTBAU Netherlands’s Chair, Mieke Bosse, was joined by Robert Adam, INTBAU professional members Maria Sanchez and Pedro Godoy, INTBAU Spain’s Alejandro García Hermida, and many others, including Peter Drijver, Jonathan Weatherill, Conor Lynch, Robert Cox, and Patrick van Buijtenen.
The course content was varied and engaging, with tutors delivering lectures on urbanism, urban design, sustainability, classical and traditional architecture, and traditional methods of building. Participants were given opportunities to improve their sketching and drawing skills with studio exercises and site visits to specific buildings in and around Utrecht, Amsterdam, and even a trip to Belgium’s summer school near Bruges.
Students were also given a final design project, where they were encouraged to work together to design and exhibit a masterplan for an urban housing development complete with urban design, blocks, house facades, a public building and details.
Photo Gallery
INTBAU Australia’s Enduring Design Masterclass
INTBAU Belgium’s Summer School of Architecture & Crafts
Rafael Manzano Summer School in New Traditional Architecture, by INTBAU Spain and INTBAU Portugal
INTBAU Netherlands’s ‘Let’s Build a Beautiful City’ Summer School
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