Summer school 2024

Arcos de Valdevez

The Iberian Summer School took place from July 8th to 21st, 2024, in Arcos de Valdevez, in northern Portugal. The summer school was held in Peneda, at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Peneda, located in the parish of Gavieira, municipality of Arcos de Valdevez, Portugal, very close to the Spanish border. The Sanctuary is situated within the Peneda-Gerês National Park. Various locations within the municipality of Arcos de Valdevez were also visited, studied, and drawn, including Soajo, São Bento do Cando, Branda de Santo António, Sistelo, and Padrão. The program focused on the study of urban planning, architecture, and traditional construction details of the region, primarily through hand-drawing. The aim was for participants to become familiar with the character and qualities of the local architecture. Experts in vernacular architecture, landscape, and construction techniques gave lectures and conducted various workshops on related topics. During the first week, several trips were organized around the region, allowing participants to study and draw the local architecture from different sites. In the second week, building on the work done previously, students worked in groups to develop an urban design proposal for Peneda. The process also involved local residents, with the aim of tailoring the proposal to their needs.

Presentation

The program was organized by the Traditional Building Cultures Foundation in collaboration with INTBAU Portugal and INTBAU Spain; thanks to the support of Richard H. Driehaus, the Municipality of Arcos de Valdevez, the Fundação Serra Henriques, Kalam, Robert Adam, the Arquia Foundation, and the King’s Trust Australia; and with the collaboration of the architecture schools of the University of Notre Dame, the University of Miami, the Universidade do Porto, the Universidade Portucalense, the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and the Centro de Investigación de Arquitectura Tradicional (CIAT), as well as other institutions such as Apatrigal, the Horrea Network, Friol, and Carpintaria Senhora da Paz.

The faculty and organizing team consisted of Fernando Cerqueira Barros (Univ. Porto / CEAU), José Franqueira Baganha (INTBAU Portugal | Traditional Building Cultures Foundation), Alejandro García Hermida (Univ. Politécnica de Madrid | Traditional Building Cultures Foundation | INTBAU Spain), Guillermo Gil Fernández (Traditional Building Cultures Foundation | INTBAU Spain), Rebeca Gómez-Gordo Villa (Traditional Building Cultures Foundation | INTBAU Spain), and Lucas Martí Guitera (Traditional Building Cultures Foundation).

The invited speakers were Joana Araújo (Lantana), Clementina Braga, Álvaro Campelo (Universidade Fernando Pessoa – UFP), Gonçalo Cornelio da Silva, Jorge Dias (Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, IP), Álvaro Domingues (Universidade do Porto FAUP-CEAU), Carlos Henrique Fernández Coto (Apatrigal | Horrea), Rui Florentino (Universidade Portucalense – UPT | INTBAU Portugal), César Maciel (Santuario de Nossa Senhora da Peneda), António Fernandez Medeiros (ISCTE-IUL), António Menéres (Universidade do Porto FAUP), Goreti Sousa (Universidade Portucalense – UPT), Alda Rodrigues (Lantana), Alcinda Tavares (Parque Nacional de Peneda-Gerês), and Carlos Eduardo Viana (Associação de Produção e Animação Audiovisual).

And the participants were Andrés Belderrain García (Spain), Teodoro Bueres (USA), Nataliia Chernobryvets (Ukraine), Ivo Chytil (Czech Republic), Meredith Fairman (USA), Marta Cristina Follana Delgado (Spain), Peyton Gable (USA), Christa Gabrielson (USA), Ayşe Nur Ger (Turkey), Rocío Gómez Llopis (Spain), Andreea-Larisa Hățiș-Condoiu (Romania), Ai-Vi Hoang (USA), Kalina Jasiak (Poland | USA), Eric Kerke (USA), Margarida Martins Pinhal (Portugal), Nieves Navas Rodríguez-Camuñas (Spain), Manoel Palácios e Cabral de Melo (Portugal), Eva Ribeiro Vaz (Portugal), Miriam Samir Rincon (Mexico), Paul Schickhofer (Austria), Álvaro Schmitt Vergara (Chile), Ashish Singh Pundir (India), Orlando Mattia Surcel (Australia), Theano Vachla (Greece), and Carlos Vallecillos Moya (Spain).

Both the initial documentation work and the final design proposal were publicly displayed at the end of the Summer School at the Biblioteca Tomaz Figueiredo in Arcos de Valdevez. The exhibition – attended by the mayor and several representatives from the Arcos de Valdevez city council, among others – was followed by a closing celebration in Peneda, which was attended by a large part of the local population.