Boundaries... in the old world, in our village

AUTHORS. Ana Maria Crișan, arh. Alexandru Crișan

COLLABORATORS: arh. Amalia Enache, stud. Ana Maria Ardeleanu, stud. Eleonora Cristiana Miron, stud. Claudiu Naca, stud. Simona Paraschiv, stud. Sergiu Turlui, stud. Merve Uysal

LOCATION: Romania, jud. Sibiu, Sibiu

A summer school in dialog with LIMITS.

A journey in search of the limits of the old world to understand the present.

Boundaries, of the village or of the home, are delimitations that over time have taken on diverse forms, that have survived pandemics and epidemics... This was the premise for the summer school LIMITS.... IN THE OLD WORLD, IN OUR VILLAGE, held in Sibiu in July, with the intention of learning from the past how our predecessors related to their boundaries, when and why boundaries appeared and how they became part of everyone's life by defining and transmitting models.

How will we live together?

Not coincidentally, the theme of the Venice Architecture Biennale is How will we live together? and discusses the normality of community life as utopia, dystopia or manifesto. The reverse exercise of repositioning oneself in relation to limits, in the global context of the last two years of all the imposed, necessary and - not least - virtual barriers, involved an immersion in the countryside and its pictorial representation, a shift from contemplation to touch. Through an intervention based on non-formal education dedicated to young architects, an applied discovery was proposed, a way back to the vernacular past for a better representation of the present. The summer school LIMITS.... IN THE OLD WORLD, IN OUR VILLAGE sought to find the limits in a physical world (Astra National Museum Complex) and to transpose them into the universe of pictorial representations (Brukenthal National Museum), primordial forms for the vernacular universe of the village.

Understanding heritage

Based on non-formal education and intuitive observation, the project aimed at approaching the vernacular universe and understanding the RE-constructed material cultural heritage as an exponent of resistance with model value. Old households seen as exponents of boundaries were the basis for the discovery of relationships - applicable both in childhood and adulthood. This understanding and intuitive experimentation were in fact mechanisms of opening the village universe to the local community and, at the same time, mechanisms of understanding on another level of the museum ensemble pieces, specific to the Astra National Museum Complex. In architecture, perhaps more than in other fields, an understanding of heritage is perhaps the basis for the conservation, assimilation and protection of perennial values, of a universe of past experiences.

Vernacular architecture

The Summer School is a non-formal education project signed CULTURE RESERVE, in support of young generations of architects who started their training in/with the LIMITATIONS imposed by SARS-CoV2 and developed in the area of the Astra National Museum Complex. It aimed to be an applied research of the limits that contextually define vernacular architecture. The students, who were trained during the pandemic - training translated into imposed limits and reduced contacts with architectural realities - were guided by a team of architects, specialists and authors of projects, conferences and high-profile articles.