The main objective of this International Workshop will be to analyze -or rethink- the status and design of the contemporary housing in densification processes taking place in European suburban landscapes. Besides, existing theories and practices of the compact city -as a way to preserve the natural landscape, control and limit the urban sprawl, reduce energy consume and consolidate social cohesion, reality- often shows a contrasting practice of low dense landscapes conditioning an efficient and sustainable functioning of urban systems. This dual reality of the built environment compact cities vs. low density suburban areas- will be equally considered during the workshop. This workshop focuses on the relation between the housing typology and its suburban surrounding and stimulates critical reflection about recent phenomena in an international context. The workshop will start from the idea that urban space is based on models of proximity: on a small scale, as well as on a bigger scale. Therefore, we should start asking ourselves: what does proximity refer to?

To conclude OIKODOMOS www.oikodomos.org we have organized a final workshop to present the outcomes of this project, in particular the two environments we have developed to support an open and collaborative education model in architectural education: OIKODOMOS Workspaces and OIKODOMOS Housing Repository.
An on-line forum, facilitated by project partners, will be open to prepare the discussions that to be taken place in the concluding session of the workshop.
To participate in the workshop, please fill in the data in this registration form.
We are looking forward to meeting you in Barcelona!

This seminar aims at exploring the relationships between contemporary living and housing forms. Dwelling will be addressed at different levels, simultaneously: existential, domestic, anthropologic, social, architectural, technological, economic and urban. At each level there are specific driving forces which influence contemporary housing forms. Through lectures and debates, individual and collaborative works, these forces will be identified and discussed. Teaching will be carried out following a blended model, in the classroom and in the web.

If you would like to participate in the on-going discussion, please enter this FORUM.

The Bratislava workshop (14-20th of October 2009) will benefit from the experiences of the previous Oikodomos workshops in Ghent (Lifelong dwelling) and Grenoble (Housing for diversity). It will deal with the effective urban and housing development in the Garden City Dúbravka Big Camp, a suburban area located at the north-west area of Bratislava. The aim of the workshop is to develop conceptual proposals of effective housing design at the urban and architectural scales. Preparatory activities will take place before the workshop starts at the participating institutions. Distant collaborative work before and after the workshop activities will be carried out using the web-based learning platform developed for the Oikodomos project.

A series of three workshops is being organized as part of the learning activities of the Oikodomos virtual campus project. The second workshop took place at Institut d'Urbanisme de Grenoble, from April 22nd to 29th 2009. The topic of the workshop was « housing for diversity ». The workshop was designed as a combination of conferences and teacher presentations plus a design studio. Students carried out their project work using the GIANT site as a basis (an area of 350 ha located at the west of the old center of Grenoble that is subject to a regeneration programme). In this way, Oikodomos project connects with the realities and practice of sustainable urban planning (and housing development strategies as a part of it) showing the diversity of stakeholders and requirements that interact in a project of this complexity, and opening academic work to the participation of the administration, professionals, investors and citizens.

A series of three workshops will be organised in 2008 and 2009 as part of the learning activities of the Oikodomos virtual campus project. The first workshop will take place at the Hogeschool voor Wetenschap & Kunst, School of Architecture, Campus Sint-Lucas, in Ghent, Belgium, from September 29th to October 3rd 2008. The topic of Workshop 1 will be "Lifelong dwelling: one side of sustainability". The aim of lifelong dwelling is to design a built environment adapted to young and old, to develop the architectural and urban conditions that support inhabitants throughout the different stages of their life.