The Cretan Studio will be based on the wild and ancient island of Crete, a place overlaid with the traces of over 5,000 years of occupation and settlement. We will study the contrasting landscapes of Heraklion, a northern port city, and Koudouma, a remote monastery on the southern coast, exploring ways of looking at and critically understanding a place in order to develop precise design proposals.
The largest Renaissance and Venetian fortifications in the Mediterranean world define Heraklion’s city centre. These extraordinary city walls took 125 years to construct and twenty-five years to conquer. This workshop will focus on these walls, which form a landscape within the city, connecting to the wider topography and acting as a backdrop to everyday life. Here, our designs will challenge the current approach to heritage and tourism.
In contrast, Koudouma – where the first traces of monasticism were introduced to Europe in the third century – is built around a walled courtyard within topographies of rocks, caves, eagles, wind and heat. We will explore this small and isolated community together, considering ways to improve life in such a challenging context. The semi-ruined and fragmented nature of these places, which seemingly exist outside of reality, leave space for the imagination and foster connections with the past.
Over ten days based both in a studio located in the historic centre of Heraklion and in Koudouma monastery, students will participate in drawing, casting and photography workshops. Short talks by local people – including a musician, filmmaker, historian, archaeologist and architect – will provide a rich background to our explorations, as will visits to the ruins of Knossos and the Labyrinth Musical Workshop .
Prominent Features of the Workshop / Skills Developed:
• Analysis: An introduction to ways of looking at and understanding place.
• Design Skills: Gaining experience of designing in response to places, topographies and communities.
• Communication: Experimentation with the practice of hand drawing in its widest sense (including sketches, diagrams, sections, casts and photography) to express ideas
• Confidence: One-on-one tutorials will encourage the development of individual preoccupations and allow time to develop design proposals.
• Personal Development: An opportunity for participants to develop their own sensibilities and intuitions.
Locations:
Venetian City Walls and studio space, Heraklion, Crete
Koudouma Monastery, Asterousia Mountains, South Cretan Sea, Crete
VS Crete programme
Full Moon Theatre
Limbo Architecture Lab
Unreal Worlds
Reimagining the Space.Body
AA Summer School Latin America
Latent Space Avenida Paulista
BambooLab
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Associated Things
The Oshakan Project