EASA 'Hospitality'
Finding the Framework
Fredericia, Denmark, 2017
The theme “Hospitality. Finding the framework” resonates with the history of Fredericia and the challenges the city now faces, as well as it relates to the current political situation in Europe and the world. The theme is divided into two practical sub-themes, linked to research on hospitality and to endeavors of finding a framework for it. These follow the classical division of EASA workshops into theoretical, practical and workshops, which combine the two parts of the theme. We are addressing a particularly important and urgent contemporary issue - the crisis of hospitality. In this world of obliged and desired mobility, the way we welcome each other is essential.
We believe our cities need to be open and friendly for social diversity, as we are when we welcome guests to our homes. Nowadays, the concept of hospitality is being commercialized and the initial idea is being misinterpreted. It implies that some categories of people (immigrants, newcomers, refugees, people with special demands or differences) face challenges and difficulties in their everyday life. Ones are not able or not allowed to come to certain areas or even countries, others need to pay for help or be outcasted. To respond to this, we need to find, understand and implement new hospitality in the current social framework. We believe that only through an ongoing process of formal and informal interactions within and between individual communities and different cultures, new humanity will emerge. Architects are believed to be in charge of the form of the built environment, not its content. Nevertheless, architectural framework affects content. Through architecture we can sense how new forms can make a difference for the progress of world civilization. We, young architects, should learn how to construct the new physical environment for hospitality, and provide solutions for social mistrust.
Pictures by Alexandra Kononchenko
Foreigner Bodies workshop
EASA Hospitality Summary Video - by Alexandra Kononchenko
About hospitality - documentary directed by Lucas Bonnel - sound by Bart Bellamy
workshops
Babel
Type: Desigh and Construction
Tutors: Paula Brücke, Michael Hammerschick, Christoph Holzinger, Clemens Hoke, Marina Urosevic
Participants: Dorien Tulp, Nick van de Werdt, Milos Petrovic, Alden Bajramspahic, Oana Dascaloiu, Konul Shirin, Tahmina Gasimli, Karina Picus, Nele Bergmans, Laura Frediani, Anneleen Brandt, Martin Kunc, Klea Sulka, Konstantin Frolov, Aleksander Gadomski, Michael Ivanov, Andrej Krokhin, Reyes Liébana Blanco, Flora Offra, Lluis Montoliu, Marta Soler, Begoña Torreira, Miguel Hernandez, Enia Kukoč, Vana Pavlić, Gleb Ivantsov, Maykal Mateev, Fedde Holwerda, Nikita Akulenko
Taking the bible story of the tower of BABEL as a starting point the workshop offered creators (aka participants) the chance to construct their ideas on a defined site without long planning processes, creating structures that served all easians. The tutors just took care of the framework that was necessary to allow the creators to start building from day one and mediated and communicated with the creators to ensure a connected structure is created.
Babette
Type: Architectural Activism / Research-based Design / Urbanism
Tutors: Atelier Kite, Kata Fodor, Seosamh O'Muircheartaigh-joe, Florian Siegel
There is a fascinating complex system behind feeding 600 people at a festival - one that is a matter of design as much as hospitality. Our workshop actively engaged with all this entails from supply to waste - challenging how we relate to the effort, mechanisms, products and people involved; and discovering what new urban constructs these might enable in Fredericia. EASA’s own collaborative kitchen, inside Fredericia’s hospital, was gradually transformed into a permanent public facility for the town: Babette’s - Fredericia Food Lab.