#006May. 2011

e: info@easa011.esw: www.easa011.es

This is the easa011 bulletin. In it you will find all the information and news related to the XXXIst European Architecture Students Assembly and to the forthcoming events that will be organized on the months previous to the summer Assembly.

Campo del Sur School

After some months of negotiations with different bodies in Cádiz, easa011 will have its base at the ‘Campo del Sur’ school, a building that dates from 1930 and was built by the regionalist architect Antonio Sánchez Estevez, right in the old town of the city.

Just accross the road from a building built by the Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza, the Cathedral as background and the sea at its back, the building is located in one of the most picturesques places of Cádiz.

· EASAday· upcoming events· deCOASTruction· a pinch of history

easa011 raffle METALOCUS & Pasajes

· easa011 workshops· participate!

EASAsite for easa011

easa011bulletin

IN THIS ISSUE

SPONSORS MATER IAL-SPONSORS

PARTNERS

MEDIAPARTNERS

BACKERS

UPCOMING EVENTS

Bruno Taut. Architecture in the AlpsWhere? Circulo de Bellas Artes, MadridWhen? Until 17th July 2011

Exhibition of the Bruno Taut’s utopic proj-ect to build a new city in the Alps.

easa011Where? CadizWhen? 23rd July - 7 August

The XXXI edition of the European Archi-tecture Assembly!

deCOASTruction

Abandoned homes haunt Spain’s banks

IRINGA VINNITSKAYA, About an hour car ride outside of Madrid, Spain, is a tiny rural village that just a few years ago had high hopes for an abundant hous-ing market. Yebes is now an example of the economic crisis that has affected the growth of cities. With an excess of 250 row houses, of which only 50 are settled, bad debt has caused these new homes to fall into disrepair with concrete chipping off the buildings, stolen piping, radiators and doors and ghostly empty streets.

Yebes is hardly unique. The wreckage of Spain’s once booming construction indus-try is everywhere. And much of it sits as bad debt on the books of Spain’s banks, which once liberally offered financing to developers and homeowners alike. It is still uncertain as to how big a loss the banks are facing. Spain’s economy, the fifth largest in Europe, is much bigger than Ireland’s or Greece’s, and a bailout of its banks could be far more costly, an event that could push the government into default and end up dooming the euro itself.

Unlike American banks, Spanish banks have done little to open their books. Along with other banks in the euro zone, they underwent a stress test last July, and all but five of Spain’s smaller savings banks passed. The Bank of Spain is moving to lift confidence in its banks by forcing them next year to disclose more details about their holdings and to start acknowledging troubled assets faster. But just how much are those assets worth?

Rafael Valderrabano, who founded the Básico real estate company 18 months ago to help banks sell property they are repossessing from developers, says the country is full of situations like Yebes. Right now, he says, he is trying to sell units in 40 apartment blocks near Cuen-ca, an area southeast of Madrid that is sparsely populated.

Oscar Lorenzo de Amo, 34, is one resident that bought property in Yebes. Once his dream home, he now calls it a nightmare

for him and his wife who are trying to sell the house with few prospects. In this area, where guard dogs ward off strang-ers, few people are willing to move in and struggle to fix the dilapidated homes with broken garage doors, wiring showing on front doors, flaking walls and numerous other inconveniences.

The boom and bust of Spain’s property sector is astonishing. Over a decade, land prices rose about 500 percent and developers built hundreds of thousands of units — about 800,000 in 2007 alone. Developments, such as the one in Yebes, sprang up on the outskirts of cities ready to welcome many of the four million im-migrants who had settled in Spain, many employed in construction.

At the same time, coastal villages were transformed into major residential areas for vacationing Spaniards and retired, sun-seeking northern Europeans. At its peak, the construction sector accounted for 12 percent of Spain’s gross domes-tic product, double the level in Britain or France.

*Continue reading on: http://www.arch-daily.com/133363/abandoned-homes-haunt-spains-banks/

Flickr | Guatman

A PINCH OF HISTORY

Costa de la Luz

The Costa de la Luz (English: Coast of Light) is a section of the Andalusian coast in Spain facing the Atlantic; it extends from Tarifa in the south, along the coasts of the Province of Cádiz and the Province of Huelva, to the mouth of the Guadiana River.

A popular destination for vacationing Spaniards, in recent years the Costa de la Luz has become more popular with foreign visitors, especially the French and the Germans. Increasing urbanization and tourism-oriented development of parts of the coast have had economic benefits, but these trends have also ignited fe-vered real-estate speculations and some environmental degradation.

The Costa de la Luz has a rich history that dates back to the twelfth century BCE. Cultural attractions include Baelo Claudia, the well-preserved ruins of a small Roman city; Cape Trafalgar, where, in 1805, in sight of this promontory, the English admiral, Horatio Nelson, defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet; and La Rábida Monastery.

Kite surfers at Cape Trafalgar

At the Rábida Monastery in Palos de la Frontera near Huelva, Christopher Co-lumbus sought the aid of the Franciscan brothers, hoping to enlist them as advo-cates for his scheme to launch a voyage of discovery. They introduced Columbus to a wealthy local seafaring family, the Pinzón brothers, who eventually pre-vailed upon Ferdinand and Isabella to listen to Columbus’s pitch for support. With royal patronage and the collabora-tion of the Pinzóns, Columbus was able to secure his three ships as well as lo-cal crews from the Huelva area. In fact, there is a persistent belief that Columbus

settled on his final westward route after speaking to a local sailor named Alonso Sánchez.

source: wikipedia.

EASA011 UPDATES

websiteThe website went under restauration some weeks ago. New sections were uploaded giving more details about the activities taking place in easa011

Invited architects and artists to run workshops in easa011· José Miguel de Prada Poole: He is one of the Spanish referents in the pneumatic architecture field. Been influenced by the technollogy inspired architecture of the 60’s, he was the designer of the Ibiza in-stant city and many other air constructions. Supported by two assistants he will con-duct a workshop based on his more than 30 years experience.

· Santiago Morilla: Living half a way be-tween Madrid and Rome, Santiago Morilla is one of the most successful emergen art-ist of Southern Europe. Having studied in Madrid and Helsinki he has specialised in medium and large scale drawings. He will run a workshop based on a transported drawing into a roof of one of the most em-blematic buildings of Cadiz: The University of Cadiz.

· Pérez de Lama: Pending to confirma-tion.

One-day-workshops· PKMN: PKMN is one of the most suc-cessful young practices of the moment in Spain. Being a small collective of people they benefit from being one of the most active offices in the field of research through actions and relation to people.

· Leyla Ibrahimova / Sofia Bergman: Leyla and Sofia will be running the DANCTRUC-TION one-day-workshop for all the ones interested.

Excursioneasa011 will offer a special excursion at a very reasonable price (5€ or less) thanks to the sponsorisation obtained from ‘Gon-zalez Byass’ wineries and the ‘Diputación de Cádiz’. More details in the website.

LecturesWe are happy to communicate that we are involving some of the most interest-ing architects of the moment in Spain to lecture in easa011. Santiago Cirugeda and Francisco Mangado are just some of the names of the architects that will ap-pear in the event.

SponsorsWe have managed to obtain a fair num-ber of companies/institutions willing to collaborate with the event. However we would like to ask you, NCs to continue looking for prospective sponsors of ea-sa011.

PARTICIPATE!

Dear NCs, if you wish to collaborate in these monthly bulletins either with articles, pictures, etc. write to francisco.rodriguez@easa011.es an email with the subject ‘easa011 bulletin‘, an we will be happy to include it in the fol-lowing issues.