ARCHITECTURE FOR PEACE - Summer School 2022! deadline extended to 30th march 2022!
Join us to help build Peace in a divided Bosnia & Herzegovina!
Architecture students from B&H, EU and the UK building rammed earth prototypes on the Most Mira Peace Centre site in Prijedor at a summer residency led by Project V Architecture and international rammed earth experts Lehm Ton Erde from Austria. Photo credit: Adriana Keast / Most Mira
Supported by: Umeå School of Architecture (UMA), Sweden.
Lead by: Architects and researchers Vernes Causevic and Lucy Dinnen Directors of Project V Architecture, lead tutors of Global Free Unit B&H Classroom, MArch tutors at University of Sheffield School of Architecture).
In collaboration with: Architect, urbanist and educator Prof. Robert Mull (Lead of Global Free Unit, Visiting Professor at UMA and Professor of Architecture and Design at the University of Brighton. Director at Publica). Peace Activist Kemal Pervanic (Founder of Most Mira, Chair of Most Mira B&H Board of Trustees)
Student work will be reviewed by UMA teachers and various international and local experts.
Partner: Most Mira (B&H-UK Charity), as part of the International Holcim Award-Winning Most Mira Peace Centre development.
We invite you to join the Architecture for Peace summer school 2022, to build peace with the Charity Most Mira (“Bridge of Peace”) in the war-torn region of Prijedor. Most Mira have been delivering creative peacebuilding programs through participatory arts, theatre and architecture since 2009 in communities that remain politically divided along ethnic lines since the War in the 1990’s.
Most Mira are developing the international award-winning rammed earth Most Mira Peace Centre with Project V Architecture, planned for construction in 2022. Co-designed with B&H, EU and UK architecture students and the local community, through a participatory workshop programme since 2014, this project is demonstrating how sustainable architecture can provide a framework for reconciliation.
This Summer Course will run alongside the Peace Centre development, involving a 2-week on-site residency, led by Most Mira and Project V Architecture, in collaboration with the Global Free Unit (GFU) and Umeå School of Architecture (UMA). Students will learn to work resourcefully and collaboratively to design and prototype innovative building components, materials and furniture for the Centre, as well as a wider reconciliation strategy of small-scale architectural interventions throughout the disjointed rural landscape. The projects will be presented to Most Mira and neighbouring communities as sustainable ‘reconciliation gifts’.
In a time of political fragility, this is a call for architecture students across Europe and B&H to come together in solidarity to promote peace and friendship. International students will work closely with B&H students. This course will be part of the Global Free Unit B&H Classroom, building on ten successful Most Mira architecture workshops running since 2014, as well as past and current UMA and GFU programmes in Russia, Lesvos and Izmir.
Architecture for Peace is a practice-based research project led by architect Vernes Causevic, in collaboration with architect Lucy Dinnen (co-founders & co-directors of Project V Architecture). This is part of the studio’s role as lead architects of the Most Mira Peace Centre project in Prijedor (winner of International Holcim European Silver Award for Sustainable Construction), and the associated participatory educational workshop programme developed with the peacebuilding Charity Most Mira.
This summer course will give students the rare opportunity to participate hands-on on a ‘live’ peacebuilding project. Students will learn experimental mapping, drawing and modelling techniques to investigate borders, available resources, programmatic and spatial needs and opportunities for architectural interventions in the divided community. Based on this research, we will collaboratively design and prototype fragments of the future Peace Centre, as well as a series of small-scale architectural interventions throughout the surrounding rural landscape.
We will explore architecture and design as a holistic tool for peacebuilding and reconciliation, considering how all stages of the architectural process: strategic planning, design, construction, inhabitation and re-use, can enable the re-building of social and ecological relationships. The outcome will be a series of projects presented to Most Mira and neighbouring communities as sustainable ‘reconciliation gifts’, which will contribute directly to the circular economies and social and environmental sustainability of both the Most Mira Peace Centre and the community it serves.
Key Dates of the Summer Course
June 15th - June 22nd 1-week Online Introduction, lectures and research
Collaborative online working
July 18th - July 29th 2-weeks On-site residency hosted by Most Mira
Supervised on-site workshop led by summer course tutors
August 1st - August 12th 2-weeks Online collaborative working and presentations
Collaborative online working and presentations
Summer Course Lead Tutors
VERNES CAUSEVIC
Architect, researcher and peace-builder. He was born in Sarajevo, B&H. He graduated from the Free Unit at London Metropolitan University with an internationally awarded self-initiated sustainable return project in B&H. He is founder director of Project V Architecture (B&H & UK). He has lead a number international award-winning projects and research in B&H, focusing on social cohesion, community engagement and environmental sustainability in the post-war B&H context, including the Most Mira Peace Centre project in Prijedor, B&H. He is co-lead tutor of Global Free Unit B&H Classroom and co-tutor of MArch Studio Resilient Futures at University of Sheffield School of Architecture.
LUCY DINNEN
Architect and educator, graduated from London Metropolitan University with Distinction and Portfolio Prize. Founder and director at Project V Architecture (B&H & UK). Her experience covers a range of education and cultural projects in the UK & B&H, most notably the multi award winning Here East, London, and V&A East in the former Olympic Park. Lucy is lead MArch Design Tutor of Studio Resilient Futures at University of Sheffield School of Architecture, co-lead tutor of Global Free Unit B&H Classroom, Visiting Lecturer at the School of Architecture & Cities at University of Westminster and has previously taught at The Cass School of Architecture and IBU Sarajevo. She is Oral Examiner on the RIBA Part III Professional Practice course at University of Westminster and Birmingham City University.
PROF. ROBERT MULL
Architect, educator and urbanist, was educated at the Bartlett and the Architectural Association, and was until 2016, Director of Architecture and Dean of the Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design in London. He has taught widely in the UK and internationally and held visiting professorships in Vienna and Innsbruck. Robert is Professor of Architecture and Design at University of Brighton (UK) and Visiting Professor at Umeå School of Architecture (Sweden), where he is developing the Global Free Unit with a number of international partners. Robert is Director of Quality and Innovation at Publica, London. He is a member of the Most Mira Peace Centre capital committee and provides academic support for the development of the Architecture for Peace educational programme.
KEMAL PERVANIC
Writer, human rights activist and peace-builder, holds a BSc in Management Studies from Royal Holloway, University of London, and an MA in Conflict Resolution from Bradford University. He was also a 2012 Human Rights Advocate for Columbia University. He is founder & president of grassroots Charity Most Mira, B&H. He was born in Prijedor, B&H and is a survivor of the notorious Omarska concentration camp. He has since dedicated his work to education, reconciliation and peace-building. Kemal is client representative of the Most Mira Peace Centre project, supports the management and delivery of the Architecture for Peace educational workshops, and oversees all Most Mira educational programmes.
Applications:
The summer course application process opens February 18th at 13.00 for application to the summer term 2022. APPLICATION DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MARCH 30TH!
Selection among the applicants is based on submitted work samples - portfolio and motivation letter. Please send in a digital portfolio (pdf. max 10MB) and motivation letter to Umeå School of Architecture uma.admissions@umu.se with “SUMMERCOURSE” followed by your name in the subject line.
Please note:
Successful candidates who are EU citizens will not need to pay tuition fees.
There will be a number of independent subsidised places for non-EU citizens, including Bosnia & Herzegovina citizens sponsored by our collaborators. The application process will be the same for all students.
Independent BiH and non-EU students apply directly to us via info@projectv-arch.com - submission requirements and deadline is the same.
Please contact us directly on info@projectv-arch.com if you have any questions or require further information.
Practical information:
Students will work on site during the on-site residency, and be hosted by Most Mira and the local community, and will need to cover their own travel and accommodation costs in affordable accommodation. Most Mira will provide affordable accommodation for up to 5 x B&H citizens and cover travel expenses for those travelling from places within B&H.
Applications deadline: EXTENDED TO 30TH MARCH 2022!!!
Portfolio:
Your portfolio should contain a selection of projects that display and communicate your capabilities and skills in architecture. It should show your working process, how you develop your ideas, as well as your ability to reflect critically about your work and its social, political and ethical dimensions. Include a short description of the context in which each work has been produced (e.g. assignment, requirements, prerequisites, etc.).
Your portfolio must be submitted digitally as one (1) document in PDF.
The file size of your portfolio may not exceed 10Mb.
Indicate if the work has been produced independently or in collaboration.
Make sure to strictly follow the requirements set out in the Full application details here.
Motivation Letter:
You should submit a motivation letter where you state why you want to enrol in the course. The text should be maximum 400 words. Specify why you want to participate in the chosen workshops and in which order and how it is relevant for you and your development. The number of places in each workshop is limited. The motivation letter can be included in the beginning of your portfolio or submitted as a separate document.
Submission:
Your digital portfolio and motivation letter must be sent by email directly to Umeå School of Architecture (not to University Admissions in Sweden).
The portfolio e-mail address is uma.admissions@umu.se In the subject line, please write "SUMMERCOURSE" followed by your name.
Motivation letter / portfolio is to be sent in at latest the same day as the deadline to pay tuition fees or prove the right to exemption.
Covid note:
This workshop can be adapted to an online or blended learning course, should this be necessary due to travel restrictions brought about by the covid pandemic. International students will work closely with students local, which also gives some flexibility for an online course to be supported with on-site activities by locally based teachers and students in the case of covid travel restrictions.