Presidents Message, December 19, 2019

Season’s Greetings!

Dear Colleagues,

 

Another year is coming to an end. Again, EAAE has been involved in many activities and in different ways. We would like to mention just a few of them:

  • We have started a new tradition with ACSA: The first joint EAAE/ACSA Teachers Conference took place at the University of Antwerp, with the aim of analysing and discussing questions regarding the relevance of design practice for architectural education. The interest was huge with more than 230 abstracts for papers and posters submitted. The second edition is already in planning and will take place at Pratt Institute in New York in June 2021.
  • We are part of new Erasmus+ projects, e.g. the CA2RE+ project, which evolved from the CA2RE network, a joint initiative of ARENA, ELIA and EAAE. We are looking very much forward to the results.
  • We have continued networking with architectural education associations and strengthened our ties to various partner organisations, e.g. by means of working on a declaration of Artistic Research together with AEC, Cilect, Culture Action Europe, Cumulus, ELIA, EQ-Arts, MusiQuE and SAR.
  • We invest in future generations of architects by supporting the Young Talent Architecture Award YTAA, which is organised by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe through the Creative Europe programme of the European Union and in partnership with the EAAE and the Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE-CAE).
  • We are professionalising our daily business as well as our traditional activities. The proceedings of our last Annual Conference “The Hidden School” at the University of Zagreb are in progress and should be ready to be published by next summer.

The EAAE is getting more and more known in the community of architectural educators and researchers and becoming an important voice in European Higher Education policymaking. Its members are well-respected experts for conferences, advisory boards and peer review committees as well as summer schools.

With full commitment, we are planning our activities for next year. We are excited to organise our first Deans Summit that will take place at AHO in Oslo from 23.–25. April 2020. Inspiring keynote speeches will examine the conference theme “Sustainable education, research and praxis – Change the game, take responsibility, nurture sustainability, and change the world!” from different perspectives. Furthermore, a common sustainable position for architectural education, research and praxis is a key aim of the event. Registration is open – so please sign in soon as the number of participants is limited.

Also, remember to register for the EAAE/ARCC International Research Conference in Valencia from 10.–13. June 2020 as well as to save the date for our next Annual Conference in Prague from 26.–29. August 2020.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and a very successful and happy New Year!

Oya Atalay Franck

President, EAAE