29th Session of the International Summer School of Architecture
Faculty of Architecture | Ss. Cyril and Methodius University - Skopje
homage to togetherness
The Faculty of Architecture, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, is just one step behind its 30 years anniversary of the International Summer School of Architecture. The Summer School of Architecture of our Faculty was continuously organized for 28 sessions, 28 years in a row. [It was organized even under very sensitive conditions during military conflict back in 2001] It has hosted more than 800 students and more than 100 architects from all around the world, among which Alexander Brodsky, Sami Rintala, Peter Wilson, Michiel Riedijk and Juliette Bekkering, just to name a few.(www.ssarch.arh.ukim.edu.mk ) It represented extracurricular summer activity in form of unique process of learning architecture through international and creative exchange between tutors and students on a relevant topic.
This year, we faced a big challenge deciding to organize the 29th Session of the Summer School of Architecture in alternative format. We made that decision based upon a principle that we cannot trade the authentic experience of the temporary collective between the students and tutors at the foot of the beautiful architectural and natural scenery of the Macedonian village of Lazaropole for the recommendations for social distancing and the discomfort of possible risks. But we also made the decision to try this alternative format due to our sincere commitment to underline important message for students in this challenging time - the architecture remembers its essential role to represent authentic spatial relations between people and their activities of enjoyment in public sphere, as our Summer School of Architecture does, a role that wasn’t put aside throughout whole architectural history and a role architecture is giving up just temporarily.
The alternative format of the 29th Session of the Summer School of Architecture will take place in the period between 16th of July and 1st of September, starting with the launching of international student competition. The competition will be followed by multiple educative activities that should broaden the student perception on the matter of the ways architecture situates togetherness. They will appear on the web site of Faculty of Architecture, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University - Skopje, and its accompanyingsocial media profiles, in form of synchronous and asynchronous addresses, and аn illustrative interactive “Atlas of Togetherness”. (@arh.ukim.edu.mk) (#ssarch2020, #afsukim)
Please find the detailed description and the calendar of the International Competition and the accompanying activities here 
togetherness noun the state of being close to another person or other people
Тhe Covid-19 outbreak completely changed the landscape of the everyday throughout the whole world. We’ve seen striking images of the most famous and beautiful cities completely emptied of human life. We’ve seen surreal images of booming nature and felt as surplus in the world that is our home. We’ve started to recognize what is already named “a visual landscape of Covid-19” consisted of sanitarian and disciplinarian techniques that impose new orders of everyday functioning - the “two meters rule” is the new architect that draws queuesand grids on public space layouts. We became faceless figures that practice distancing.
The Student Architectural Competition The Last Resort - Remembering Spatial Patterns of Togetherness aims to motivate an inverse imaginative response to this new visual landscape as an action of inner rebellion that we must not forget the intrinsic character of architecture- to bring together, to connect! What we want to provoke and compile is homage to togetherness!
We invite students to remember, to explore, to learn, to think of spatial patterns that promote the socially interactive, the inclusive, the integrative, the playful, the empathetic, the interstitial. The students are expected to design small-scale low-tech projects based on the abovementioned intentions.
The word “resort” has double meaning, the one is “a place where people can go on vacation to relax or for an activity they enjoy” and the other (especially when used with ‘the last’) is “the fact of doing something in a particular situation because there is no other way of achieving something.” This collective imaginative resort, compiled of every student’s individual small-scale project based upon their own idea of togetherness at the end of the competition, will represent an important message that architecture can resist, rather than reflect, this temporal external reality of social distancing.
So, we really hope that our small-scale architecture will resonate the big-scale truth and hope for architecture as homage to togetherness.
Thanks to all who will take part in this challenge!
Competition Type Student | Architectural | International | Idea/Conceptual |
Official language The official language of the competition is English
Registration Each participant (individual or team) should fill the Registration Form and send it to Оваа е-адреса е заштитена од спамботови. Треба да ви е овозможено JavaScript за да ја видите. and Оваа е-адреса е заштитена од спамботови. Треба да ви е овозможено JavaScript за да ја видите. no later than 27 07 2020.
Fees The competition is free of charge
Download
Competition Task Program and Location
Competition Rules and Regulations
Faq(Frequently Asked Questions)
During the whole contest, until submission deadline - competitors can address any question to Оваа е-адреса е заштитена од спамботови. Треба да ви е овозможено JavaScript за да ја видите. and Оваа е-адреса е заштитена од спамботови. Треба да ви е овозможено JavaScript за да ја видите. , with the designated subject of the email: QUESTION. The organizers of the competition will individually answer the competitors by e-mail and will weekly publish updates in the FAQ section of the faculty website (www.arh.ukim.edu.mk).
Atlas of Togetherness
“Atlas of Togetherness” is interactive initiative. All the professors and friends of the Faculty of Architecture, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje are invited to contribute with one illustration (photography/drawing/sketch of architectural project) with or without short text of 100-150 words, or one theoretical article that strongly expresses their personal association to togetherness in architecture. We aim to pick into this personal sensual knowledge of togetherness and to juxtapose it in web platform for exchange between colleagues and students. In that way, it will represent open, ever-growing celebration of togetherness, an act of togetherness itself, but it will also function as motivational container for the students and contestants.
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