Symposium

IdentitySymposium:TalentInformation document 090_01

easa010Manchester

EASA: European Architecture Students Assembly.EASA was established by students and tutors of Liverpool University in 1981 as a way to bring talented students together to discuss the issues facing both the profession and urban environments.

Every summer since then around 400 of the brightest students from every part of Europe have come together for 2 intense weeks of: workshops, lectures, exhibitions and events; in the name of exchanging ideas, culture and experience.

In the years since EASA was first conceived it has been held in such ambitious and inspirational situations as: a train travelling across Scandinavia, a renovated WWII destroyer moored to the banks of the Danube in the centre of Budapest and even, in 1988, behind the Berlin wall in East Berlin. At the 2008 meeting of representatives from each country the UK successfully bid to host the 2010 event.

This document is a brief introductory overview to EASA and its recent history.

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EASA is the only organization of its kind in Europe and is fundamentally different to all other student architecture organisations around the world.

Primarily EASA is a network of students, by students, for students, there is no central organisation or board, no standing affiliation with any external establishment exist. There are over 40 countries that cover the whole of the continent’s student population, each of these have 2 National Contacts (NCs), whose role is to promote the network within their country’s student population and be the link between individual students and the other countries in the network.

These NCs come together once a year at the INCM (Intermediate National Contacts Meeting), typically in November, to discuss any issues that are facing the network and to choose the venue for the following INCM and EASA summer event. The most striking feature of these meetings is there is never a vote on any decision; rather all decisions must be reached by way of the consensus of those present.

Another defining characteristic of EASA is its non-political stand point. This allows for greater cooperation in possibly unexpected ways, for example 2008’s applicants from Northern Ireland applied for participation through the Irish quota; likewise Kosovo students are covered by Serbian NCs.

Another unlikely link up occurred with the organisation of the 2008 INCM when students from either side of the divided island of Cyprus collaborated to host the meetings, partly in the no-man’s-land that physically divides the Island.

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The organising team believes that EASA 2010 has the potential to both inspire a generation of EuropeanArchitecture students to greater things, as well as provide a platform for the city of Manchester & the UK as a whole to present its’ talent, passion and creativity.

EASA is a unique event, bringing together the brightest students of Architecture from all over Europe: this symposium will give the UK the opportunity to express its architectural beliefs to a European audience within the theme of EASA 2010 - Identity.

The Symposium will be held at a prominent location in Manchester, on August 2nd, with speakers asked to talk on the theme of Identity. The content of the talk is completely at the speaker’s discretion, and could involve works that relate to the theme, or be less directly related to architecture. The organising team behind the Symposium are hoping to develop the final structure of the event with speakers.

The event will be attended primarily by the 400 student participants of EASA010 but will also be open to the public.

easauK2010 LtdeasaHQFirst Street43 Hulme StreetManchesterM15 6AW

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