International Summer School – Simeri Laboratorio Urbano
Conversion of the former school into a place capable of meeting new needs for community life in the shrinking village of Simeri in southern rural Italy.
“Hocu sutta cinnara” italian for “fire under the ashes,” is a Calabrian dialect expression meaning what is not completely dead, what is dormant, silent but still alive. The expression, title of this summer school, symbolically enshrines the concept behind the program of resilient adaptation of community life in the village of Simeri. The dormant, socially and economically marginalized community resists in a condition of apparent passivity. In rural Calabria, those who decided to stay, newcomers and people passing through need to rethink the places of togetherness, and their cultural traditions in view of an uncertain future.
In this context of crisis, architecture and design become tools to revive that flame that today is reduced to being only a fire under ashes, an unexpressed potential that instead needs and deserves to find fulfillment and realization. The municipality today has decided to embark on a territorial regeneration path, starting with the transformation of the hamlet’s former school, now unused, into a place for community life, a welcoming space for newcomers, a working environment for digital nomads and an information point for passing tourists.
Over the seven-day summer school, through first-hand accounts of regeneration in critical places, you will learn how to design and build a place that can meet the needs of a shrinking community, using locally available resources and materials. You will work together with the inhabitants, integrating local traditions with contemporary and sustainable architectural practices.
Application form and link to the online information event: https://linktr.ee/simerilab
Tuition fee: 500 Euro
Fee includes airport pick-up, food for the whole week, accommodation in the houses of old the village Simeri, working materials, input and supervision by profissional lecturers and guests during the whole summer school, cultural activities with the inhabitants of the old village Simeri and a diverse program and local and professional experience!
In collaboration with:
Lemonot Studio for Architecture and Performative Arts (https://www.lemonot.co.uk)
Borneo Architecture (www.borneoarchitecture.com)
Artist Massimo Sirelli (https://www.massimosirelli.it/ , https://www.instagram.com/massimosirelli/)
Any questions? Drop us a line to contact@borneoarchitecture.com or on Social Media
Hopefully see you soon in Italy!
SimeriLab was launched in 2021 as an interdisciplinary laboratory for the cultural and social regeneration of the shrinking village Simeri in Southern Italy’s rural Calabria. The project is supported by the local cultural heritage association APS Asperitas, the Municipality of Simeri Crichi and Borneo Architecture.