IACOBUS+ Culture, Heritage and Integration Erasmus Project

Project Title

IACOBUS+ Culture, Heritage and Integration

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Integration of refugees; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

1. CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND
The IACOBUS + Culture, Heritage and Integration project has been a teaching experience, in an international university environment, for students of the Bachelor and Master levels in architecture. It is built on the previous experience of IACOBUS, a collaboration agreement that, since 1995, has brought together almost 1,000 students, professors and experts from the ETSA of the University of A Coruña, the ENSA of Clermont-Ferrand and the OTH of Regensburg. It consisted on an invitation to work on a series of awareness-raising and intervention projects on buildings and environments of patrimonial interest, at risk or threat of disappearance due to the lack of legal protection mechanisms, abandonment, ruin or urban pressure. The aim was to provide the buildings with new uses and revitalize their surroundings, as part of a collective exercise of architecture and research, with a high impact on the communities in which it operates. A rotating methodology was defined, in such a way that each year the work was focused on a study case located in the hometown of each of the participant institutions.

2. OBJECTIVES
The IACOBUS + Culture, Heritage and Integration project has been carried out over the last three academic years 2018-2020, with a triple objective:

1 – To provide specialized training for students in a context of collective work forming international groups, under real premises and hypotheses, in such a way that their work, beyond the academic, has an important social impact. For them, it is a training opportunity in the field of intervention in heritage, but also an experience of exchanging knowledge and work and training methodologies.

2 – To invite citizens and authorities to reflect on the possibilities of providing new uses to old industrial, educational, religious, civil facilities, etc., understanding the recovery of these buildings as a cultural value, as well as a commitment to sustainability and with social responsibility towards the less favored communities.

3- To contribute to the construction of European citizenship through awareness of history and common cultural heritage. To create personal and professional links between participating students through collaborative work and the exchange of experiences, experiences and reflections.

3. PARTICIPANTS
226 students, 24 professors and more than 20 external experts and collaborators from the partner institutions have participated in the project.

4. ACTIVITIES
3 case studies were proposed, one for each year of the project, in addition to 2 workshops in Armenia in 2018 and 2019. The case studies generated a lot of documents as a result of both research and analysis, and the proposals made by student groups, continuously directed and supervised by teachers in a collaborative context. The most intense phases of the project were coincident with the moments of meeting of the students, around the workshops and seminars organized in Regensburg (March 2018), A Coruña (March 2019) and, online in March 2020, in line with the respective proposals, in the presentations of the works, carried out in A Coruña (June 2018), Clermont-Ferrand (May 2019), and online throughout the months of May and June 2020, and in the workshops held in Yerevan (Armenia), in April 2018 and April 2019. The activities planned for 2020 had to be carried out on an online basis due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic situation.

5. RESULTS AND IMPACT
The tangible results and objectives of the project are reflected in the documents, works, studies, reviews and proposals made during the term of the project. Apart from these, three levels of impact can be considered, achieved throughout the project period (2017-2020):

1- Impact on the participants. At an academic level, specialized training has been obtained for students in the disciplinary axis of intervention in architectural heritage, developing skills to work in an international environment and improving their language skills.

2- Impact on host communities. The participation of non-formal partners in the proposal and definition of the different case studies has stimulated the appearance of useful and viable proposals, made from the pause, reflection and collaborative work.

3- Impact on partner institutions. A collaboration between the partners has been consolidated with guarantees of continuity. In the longer term, it is planned to implement the program by opening it up to new interested institutions, for which contacts have been maintained with schools of architecture in Liege, Milan, Venice, Ljubljana, Barcelona, Porto, Bucharest, Sarajevo and Las Palmas.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 67352,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSIDADE DA CORUNA & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture de Clermont-Ferrand
• NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CONSTRUCTION OF ARMENIA
• OSTBAYERISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE REGENSBURG