ARCHI’Nature, Creativity 4 Environment and wellness Erasmus Project

Project Title

ARCHI’Nature, Creativity 4 Environment and wellness

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 : Partnerships for Creativity

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Rural development and urbanisation; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

The “ARCHI’Nature” project was born out of a common observation shared by schools, their territorial public administrations, cultural associations and architecture specialists: “Whether it is a question of small rural and agricultural territories or small towns, Culture and Art are as little present as urban planning and sustainable development issues are faced locally”! Thus, this project wishes to question both the capacity for innovation linked to creativity, whatever its field of application, and the consequences of human action on its environment. The will of the partnership is to use the artistic medium to serve a major citizen reflection: how to develop with respect our territories while preserving nature and its natural wealth?
Moreover, these European spaces, similar in their respective strategic positioning, all located in the immediate vicinity of a lake, have all committed themselves to an eco-responsible approach to the development of their territories. Their desire is to involve the socio-professional actors to implement projects whose values are shared by the citizens and for which they will thus become the relay. In fact, all the partners share the desire to work towards active citizenship and the importance of supporting the development of structuring citizen initiatives. Thus, the values underlying ARCHI’Nature are the following: entrepreneurship, curiosity, dynamism, and experimentation in order to create the world of tomorrow. In addition, learning by doing, or LAB will be the methodologies used to respect the experimental dimension and to let the groups express themselves as freely as possible.
This project will also be an opportunity to analyze how creativity has been illustrated in the past, an opportunity to observe and value a common cultural heritage specific to Europe. Unpretentious, in the face of the individualism that is gaining ground in our societies and which is reflected in an increasingly pervasive Euroscepticism, we wish to develop an educational project around creativity in order to reveal it in each individual but also to use its strength in an inclusive social dimension that strengthens the links between citizens. Culture helps to reinforce the feeling of belonging to a group, ARCHI’Nature and its artistic creations will strive to demonstrate this by example. What could be better than artistic and creative experiences, defined and developed by young people and citizens themselves, to visually communicate and involve a whole community of life around issues of urban planning and environmental impacts? How to imagine a festival on the scale of these European lake territories composed of local itineraries?
The project was conceived on a tandem of different partners (institutional, school or associative). This one seems to us necessary insofar as it allows to build an artistic and cultural pedagogical project that resonates with a wider territorial development project, which allows for greater possibilities of action and wider influence.
This project must necessarily be carried out at a European level because creativity expresses itself all the more and is enriched by local differences and specificities. Cultural diversity will strengthen the collectively imagined experiments, beyond the language and culture of each individual. It will enable the construction of a network of itineraries and the bringing to life of these territories on a European scale. ARCHI’Nature will allow an exchange of practices and results that will reflect the rash of glances, witnesses of the identities of our territories to be shared between partners. Our wish is to enable citizens to reappropriate the creative gesture to create added value in their living space, to be able to seize it to create links and meaning, while protecting their environment.

The “ARCHI’NAture” project will therefore be developed around different axes of work:
1-Architecture & Art at the service of the geographical, economic, tourist and social development of the territories and its citizens.
2- Creativity as a tool for personal development and as a factor of social bond.
3-The creation of a common artistic device of the type of a festival thanks to the creation of artistic events shared locally as well as on the European scale of the partnership.
4-The knowledge of Europe, its geography and its different cultures.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 274630 Eur

Project Coordinator

COGITO ERGO SUM & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Fundação Alentejo
• LIFE LONG LEARNING CENTER – REGION OF CENTRAL MACEDONIA
• COMUNE DI ISEO
• CAUE73
• Centro Formativo Provinciale G. Zanardelli
• Lycée Charles Baudelaire
• Município de Reguengos de Monsaraz