Part 1 COMPOSTELA INSTITUTE 2010-2013

C O M P O S T E L A I N S T I T U T E 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3 P A R T 1

C O M P O S T E L A S U M M E R P R O G R A M | W W W . C A I N S T I T U T E . E S | G A L I C I A | S P A I N

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S | P A R T 1 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

1. I N T R O D U C T I O N | T E A C H I N G P H I L O S O P H Y 2. S C H O O L | S A N M A R T I N P I N A R I O M O N A S T E R Y

3. C I T Y | H I S T O R Y A N D T R A D I T I O N

4. S T U D I O W O R K | C O L L A B O R A T I O N 5. C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S

6. D I S T I N G U I S H E D G U E S T S

7. T R A V E L | S P A I N | P O R T U G A L

8. L I F E | F O O D | P L A Y

9. P R O L O G U E: S T U D E N T S O F C O M P O S T E L A 2 0 1 2

1 0. A D D E N D U M | L I S T O F S T U D E N T S | L E C T U R E S | P O S T E R S


I N T R O D U C T I O N - T E A C H I N G P H I L O S O P H Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

The Compostela Institute offers an intensive three-week architectural summer program in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in which students attend lectures and seminars, visit major works of architecture from the Middle Ages to the present, participate in building workshops and round-table discussions with prominent inter-national architects and historians, and complete three design projects that attempt to resolve current problems in the city. The Institute places a strong emphasis on educating students in the tectonics of design, the craft of making and hand drawing, inter-disciplinary collaboration, and sensitivity towards the physical and social environment.

The Institute is an independent institution, supported by the University of Santiago de Compostela and the Municipality of Santiago. Beginning in 2010, 20-30 students from all over the world have participated each summer, representing roughly 15 different nations, in what is now becoming a close family of Compostela teachers and alumni. Our community includes the active participation of such distinguished figures as Alvaro Siza, William JR Curtis, Juhani Pallasmaa, Manuel Gallego, and David Chipperfield. The program is open to students at the undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate levels in architecture and all related disciplines, including landscape architecture, history, historic preservation, urban design, interior design, and the building crafts.

Santiago de Compostela was declared a World Heritage City by UNESCO in 1985, in view of its urban beauty and monumental integrity, as well as the profound echoes of its spiritual significance as an apostolic sanctuary and the destination of the Middle Ages’ most important religious and cultural movement: the Way of St. James pilgrimage. Third in significance as a pilgrimage site only to Jersusalem and Rome, Santiago de Compostela receives over 100,000 pilgrims each year from around the world. In addition to its medieval and baroque buildings, the city has notable contemporary works by Siza, Grassi, Hejduk, Lopez Cotelo, and Gallego.

The program aims to integrate students in the context of the city, to experience walking, travelling, and living among architectural masterpieces, immersed in the region’s ambiance and traditions. Galicia’s rich historical heritage, mixed with many fine examples of contemporary work and an overwhelming natural landscape of granite cliffs, winding rias and estuaries, encourage students to forget all that has been “learned” and to return to a direct and essential experience of architecture, with its fundamental materials and techniques. There will be a simultaneous understanding of the theoretical and the applied, whereby students will fully engage in the creative process, getting back to intentions, thought, drawing, guided by intuition and a deep understanding of place.


I N T R O D U C T I O N - A N E W A R C H I T E C T U R A L C U R R I C U L U M 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

The Compostela Institute program acts as a laboratory to explore new directions in architectural education. It is our belief, that for architecture to remain relevant in this time of uncertainty and change, it will need to reposition itself in relation to economic and social forces, to engage directly with the communities that it serves, and to resist specialization and fragmentation by connecting itself in meaningful ways with history, culture, tradition, ecology, the building crafts, and other related disciplines. It is also part of the thesis of the program that true sustainability depends on these connections, together with an innate understanding of the environment. While it is clear that many characteristics of a summer school cannot be replicated in a full-year architectural program, the Compostela Institute aims to suggest new ideas for a more project-based, experiential, collaborative, and interdisciplinary educational model, which could be adapted and implemented in schools of architec-ture in other parts of the world. The teaching philosophy of the Compostela Institute can be summarized in the following 7 points:

1. Research: The school acts as a laboratory in which interdisciplinary research is fully integrated with and informs design thinking. Primary areas of research in-clude the relationship of architecture to landscape, archaeology, geography, history, and phenomenology, providing a multidimensional understanding of architecture. 2. City as a School/Community - The program is rooted in Santiago de Compostela and learning extends beyond the classroom into the city. Design projects, devel-oped in collaboration with the town council and local specialists, are seen as a way to give back to the city and aim to solve real problems. 3. Collaboration/Diversity: Internationally recognized theorists and practicioners represent a great variety of philosophies in architecture, which are shared through open dialogue and debate. The program experience is focused on intense collaboration between teachers and students, both inside and outside the classroom. 4. Craft/Tectonics: Drawings and models crafted by hand are encouraged in the studio. The program values an experiential approach to architecture, focusing on the fundamental skills of an architect.The hand is seen as the primary instrument in this endeavor, as students learn to see and think through drawing and making. 5. Travel: Simultaneously with lectures and design workshops offered throughout the city, travel outside of Santiago de Compostela provides the direct experience of architecture, both ancient and modern, to allow students to develop a deeper understanding of buildings, their tectonic complexity, and relationship to place. 6. Global/Local: The school hosts an international community of students and distinguished guests in an intimately local context: The program has as one of its aims the dissemination of knowledge about Galicia’s heritage, with guests and alumni invited to continue their collaboration with the program in the years to come. 7. Living Architecture: The making of architecture is understood as a craft which involves all of the senses and life activities which immerse the student in local culture and spontaneous events: food, play, participation in the rituals and traditions of Galicia all provide a connection with the community and local life.



S C H O O L | S A N M A R T I N P I N A R I O M O N A S T E R Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

There are few places more appropriate for us to rethink the education of an architect than here, on the edge of a continent, where community, tradition, and place are still regarded as important aspects of regional identity. Both the workshop and studio encourage collaboration among students, faculty, and local and international specialists. Students work in teams, modeled on the “atelier” environment, where more experienced mentors support younger students. The program offers interdis-ciplinary lectures and seminars which are fully integrated with the design studio, providing a multi-dimensional understanding of architecture, where the study of history, culture, and ecology informs the design process at every stage.

Particularly relevant to any program in architecture is the space in which teaching occurs. We understand the entire city of Santiago de Compostela as the best pos-sible classroom and so we have distributed the spaces in which the program takes place throughout the city: the main studios are in the 16th Century monastery of San Martin Pinario, located near the Cathedral in the historic old city, the seminars in university facilities, and the guest lectures in the meeting hall across the famous Plaza Quintana or in the auditorium of Alvaro Siza’s Contemporary Art Center of Galicia.

The San Martin Pinario Monastery, with its massive stone walls and interior gardens and patios, provides an inspirational ambiance for study. The lecture hall is small and intimate, with separate chairs that can be organized in a circle for discussion. The adjacent studio space seats all three studio groups around their own clus-ter of desks, encouraging collaboration. Outside is a garden terrace, which can be used for class meetings or studio discussions. The main cloister in the monastery, which is closed to the public, is occasionally offered to the program for the most important studio reviews.

Many informal and spontaneous classes and conferences spill out into the narrow pedestrian walkways, plazas, and gardens of Santiago de Compostela. In this way the students are encouraged to experience the city in a more complex way, through first-hand experience with architecture of different periods and ideologies. Also important to the program’s teaching methodology is the housing of students within the same university dormitory, so that the interaction among our international group extends beyond the classroom. The dormitory is also the site for informal conferences, communal dinners, and film screenings.



S a n M a r t i n P i n a r i o L e c t u r e H a l l



L e c t u r e b y V i t o A c c o n c i



C o n v e r s a t i o n w i t h J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a , C a r l o s S e o a n e , A l b e r t o F o y o



C o n v e r s a t i o n w i t h J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a , C a r l o s S e o a n e , A l b e r t o F o y o



G a r d e n A d j a c e n t t o t h e S c h o o l a t S a n M a r t i n P i n a r i o



S t u d i o M e e t i n g i n t h e G a r d e n - A l b e r t o F o y o ‘ s G r o u p



C o n v e r s a t i o n i n Q u i n t a n a S q u a r e w i t h J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a



C o n v e r s a t i o n i n Q u i n t a n a S q u a r e w i t h J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a



F i n a l R e v i e w i n t h e M a i n C l o i s t e r - w i t h W i l l i a m J R C u r t i s , J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a, t h e M a y o r



A f t e r t h e F i n a l R e v i e w i n t h e M a i n C l o i s t e r



C I T Y | H I S T O R Y A N D T R A D I T I O N 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

Santiago de Compostela has been a pilgrimage destination since the Middle Ages. The legend that St.James found his way to the Iberian peninsula, and had preached there, is one of a number of early traditions concerning the missionary activities and final resting places of the apostles of Jesus. Although in 1884 the authenticity of the relics at Compostela was accepted, the Vatican remains uncommitted as to whether the relics are those of Saint James the Great, while continuing to promote the more general benefits of pilgrimage to the site.The pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is known in English as the Way of St. James and in Spanish as the Camino de Santiago.

According to a tradition that can be traced before the 12th century, the relics were said to have been discovered in 814 by Theodomir, bishop of Iria Flavia in the west of Galicia. Theodomir was guided to the spot by a star, the legend affirmed, drawing upon a familiar myth-element, hence “Compostela” was given an etymolo-gy as a corruption of Campus Stellae, “Plain of Stars. As the lowest-lying land on that stretch of coast, the city’s site took on an added significance. Legends of Celtic origin described it as the place where the souls of the dead gathered to follow the Sun across the sea.

One of the defining characteristics of the program is that it is rooted in Santiago de Compostela, and some of the most memorable educational experiences hap-pen here, outside the traditional classroom. Santiago’s urban context encourages direct engagement with architecture from Roman times, the Gothic, the Baroque, Twentieth-Century Modern, as well as controversial contemporary projects. Students live together as a community, for three weeks, in the context of this ancient city, walk the mostly pedestrian network of medieval streets and enjoy the social life of Santiago de Compostela’s university town atmosphere. Drawing exercises are conducted here, as part of the design studio curriculum, and inspiration is constantly drawn from the city.

The program approaches the City of Santiago de Compostela as a research studio, where different architectonic and urban concepts can play out. This strategy, while encouraging experimentation, is essentially pragmatic and anchors design ideas in the current socio-cultural conditions. Proposals for new projects originate from a critical analysis of existing urban conditions and problems to be solved, and are developed in collaboration with the Mayor’s office and the Galician Professional As-sociation of Architects. The proposals that arise in the program’s studios are seen as a way of engaging with the local community and giving back to the city. In this way social responsibility and public outreach become critical to the mission of the Institute. We understand this relationship to the city as fundamental to the public goals of a university and to the training of young architects.



S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a



S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a - C i t y G a r d e n s



T o u r o f t h e C a t h e d r a l R o o f t o p s - S t u d e n t s w i t h W i l l i a m J R C u r t i s , F u l v i o I r a c e



C e l e b r a t i o n w i t h T h e M a y o r o f S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a



S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a , S p a i n - T o u r o f P u b l i c S p a c e s a n d C o n v e n t s



S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a , S p a i n - T o u r o f P u b l i c S p a c e s a n d C o n v e n t s



T o u r o f t h e P r e s i d e n t i a l G a r d e n s w i t h P a b l o G a l l e g o a n d J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a



T o u r o f B o n a v a l P a r k w i t h T a t i a n a B e r g e r









S u m m e r 2 0 1 2 S t u d e n t s i n S a n t i a g o



B r e a k f r o m D r a w i n g C l a s s



S T U D I O W O R K | C O L L A B O R A T I O N 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

Professors of the Compostela Institute are encouraged to experiment with diverse teaching methodologies. The goal is to awaken in each young architect and future professional some innate personal sense of what it means to practice this ancient discipline. To this end, the trifecta of the program’s teaching structure is travel/mak-ing/collaboration. The visits to buildings and journeys through Galician landscapes are understood as the primary means of learning; the hand as the first creative instrument; design as the need to make and learn simultaneously; dialogue and teamwork as the best way to intervene in a complex and changing reality.

There are several unique characteristics of the design studio:

Integration | Interdisciplinary | Real Practice-Based Projects: Unlike many studios in traditional academic institutions, the projects at Compostela are not abstract ex-ercises but real design problems, involving issues which are vital to the city. They are totally grounded in the local context, which guarantees integration between all components of the academic program: lectures, seminars, drawing tours, workshops on regional issues, and the design studio. While in the conventional architectural curriculum ideas and precedents from history, environmental studies, or structures are often presented as separate from studio problems, here all comes together in one smoothly integrated investigation. Students may listen to a lecture on the Galician landscape or the properties of local stone in the morning, and then immediate-ly put this knowledge to use in the design studio that afternoon, where the lecturers will also return as design critics. In this way, students learn to find relationships between multiple dimensions of design and the many disciplines that enrich it. They see the architect as a figure that moderates and brings together knowledge from different sources, rather than as the sole author.

Collaboration: Collaboration is at the heart of all teaching goals of the Compostela Institute. This begins with the relationship among the core faculty and guests, and is developed in the collaborative spirit encouraged in the studios, the participation of guest lecturers in all aspects of the program, the non-hierarchical interaction between teachers and students, and finally through the constant dialogue with the community that hosts the program - in public lectures and conferences on current urban issues, involvement of the mayor and other city officials in reviews, and through the publication of design projects developed in the program’s studios. Experiential “On-Site” Design: The research work and much of the design work in studio is developed “on-site”. In this process of “experiential design”, students learn to gather, analyze, and develop ideas within the same places which they occupy during their three weeks in Santiago. As many of the program’s studio projects are focused on landscape, the students will often design not only by hand but with their entire bodies, while walking, as they trace paths through the landscape and make project decisions based on experience instead of visual form. The path of the body becomes the line, as a complete rejection of the contemporary style of draw-ing lines on the computer screen: abstract, random, and removed from context and experience. Architecture here is understood as much with the body as with the mind.

Project descriptions and examples of student work can be found in Part 2 of this document.



W o r k i n S t u d i o w i t h J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a a n d A l b e r t o F o y o



S t u d i o T e a m W o r k - C i t y o f C u l t u r e a n d P i l g r i m a g e R o u t e



P r e p a r i n g F o r M i d t e r m R e v i e w s



W o r k i n g T o g e t h e r - T a t i a n a ‘ s T e a m



B o n a v a l P r o j e c t P i n - u p W i t h J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a



C a r l o s S e o a n e a n d J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a



F i n a l R e v i e w I n S a n M a r t i n P i n a r i o M o n a s t e r y












J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a a n d P a b l o



W i l l i a m J R C u r t i s , J a c q u e s G u b l e r , a n d T h e M a y o r a t t h e F i n a l R e v i e w



C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

The institute focuses on developing the fundamental skills of an architect. In that sense, materiality, tectonics, sketching, hand-made models, craft and construction form the basic elements of the Compostela summer syllabus. The hand is seen as the primary instrument and all aspects of the curriculum are structured to reinforce experiential and tactile learning, to help students make the connection between seeing, understanding, and making. These skills are reinforced in the design studio, where drawing exercises and sketching in the city are integrated in the class schedule and supported in workshops on craft and materials.

The focus placed on craft is natural, in a place with a rich building tradition like Galicia, but also comes out of a critique of the conventional academic curriculum, which sometimes produces projects with an undefined site or program, abstract and disengaged forms, leading to reliance on computer graphics in the absence of deeper layers of investigation. Without possibility for collaboration with classmates or a potential client, without a chance to engage directly with a place and a com-munity, the work becomes self-referential.

The projects at Compostela, due in part to the short time-frame available for design, are essentially sketch problems, which begin with a large-scale hand crafted site model - always a group effort. The studio format and the emphasis on teamwork and collaboration complement the focus on handmade work - it is easier for students to work as a team when they all gather around a model or drawing than when they look at separate computer screens. Clearly, the vital projects called for by the city and the local community also demand a realistic, direct, detailed, and experiential approach in the studio, both in terms of production and communication.

Santiago de Compostela, with its rich palette of materials like granite and wood is a constant reference and inspiration for the students. Various methods of working these materials can be studied throughout, and so in the students’ daily experience walking and being in the city, it becomes the principal teacher. This direct experi-ence is complemented by other components of the study program, including lectures on tectonics using Galician and other archaic precedents, an annual lecture on drawing in the work of Alvaro Siza, and building workshops taught by local craftsmen working in stone and wood. The program has future plans for a design-build studio, to begin in 2014, where students will live on-site, near the coast, and spend three weeks building a small structure for the benefit of the community.


C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

G r a n i t e W o r k s h o p


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D r a w i n g A f t e r t h e F i r s t S i t e V i s i t


C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

P i n - u p w i t h J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a


C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

W o r k i n g i n S t u d i o - F i r s t D a y s


C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

D r a w i n g s - M o n t e G a i a s


C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

D r a w i n g s - M o n t e G a i a s


C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

P r e p a r i n g F o r t h e F i r s t R e v i e w


C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

D e t a i l s


C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3



C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3



C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

W o o d w o r k i n g a n d F u r n i t u r e W o r k s h o p


C R A F T | T E C T O N I C S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

W o o d w o r k i n g a n d F u r n i t u r e W o r k s h o p



D I S T I N G U I S H E D G U E S T S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

Crucial to the life of the program is the diversity of invited speakers. They are distinguished historians, teachers, architects, artists, critics, geographers and archae-ologists - many of the invited guests are local specialists, while others travel here each summer from many different nations: France, Finland, England, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, China. While these guests often have very different ideologies and approaches to teaching and practice, they share the goals of the program and form a close-knit community while here, in Santiago de Compostela. Some of our guests have close bonds with Galicia and others have shared an ongoing discussion for decades, before meeting again here, in a new context. All of them participate actively in the life of the program, sharing meals with students in the city, participating in informal round-table discussions, coming to studio reviews. This allows students to engage with distinguished guests in a more intimate context and to understand their research and ideas on a much deeper level than what would be possible in a single lecture. The guests also have a long-standing close relationship with the core faculty of the school. Below are brief biographies of five of the many guests from 2010-2013.

David Chipperfield (born 1953) is a British architect, who opened his practice in 1984 and now has offices in London, Berlin, Milan, and Shanghai. Chipperfield was the architect for the reconstruction of the destroyed Neues Museum in Berlin and the master plan for Berlin’s entire Museum Island. He completed numerous other projects all over the world, has taught architecture in Europe and the United States, and curated the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. In addition to many other honors, Chipperfield was the recipient of the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2010 and the Royal Gold Medal in 2011. He built his own summer home on the coast of Galicia.

William JR Curtis (born 1948) is a well-known architectural critic, historian, and artist. He was educated at the Courtauld Institute of Art and received a PhD from Harvard University with a dissertation on the Carpenter Center by Le Corbusier. He has taught at numerous universities in Europe, USA, Australia, Asia, and Latin America. His best known books are Modern Architecture Since 1900, now in its third edition (1996) and Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms (1986). Curtis has received numerous awards including a Silver Medal at the World Biennale of Architecture in 1989 and a National Honor Society Gold Medal (USA) in 1999.

Manuel Gallego (born 1936) is one of the most distinguished Spanish architects of our time. Born in Galicia, he received a PhD from the School of Architecture in Madrid and later worked in the office of Alejandro de la Sota. Since the late 1960’s he has completed numerous buildings, most of them in Galicia and other regions of Spain. His best known works are the Museum of Fine Arts (1988-95) in Coruna and the Presidential Complex for the Galician government (2002) in Santiago de Compostela. He is the winner of the Castillian Medal of the Government of Galicia, the National Prize in Architecture, and the Gold Medal in Architecture.

Juhani Pallasmaa (born 1936) is a Finnish architect, writer, critic, and teacher. Besides being Dean of Helsinki University of Technology and Director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture, he has also held several visiting professorships in the United States, and has lectured widely in Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia. Some of his best known publications include: The Thinking Hand: Embodied and Existential Wisdom in Architecture (2008), Encounters: Architectural Essays (2005), and The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses (1995 and 2005). Professor Pallasmaa has been a Member of the Pritzker Prize Jury since 2009.

Alvaro Siza (born 1933) is a well-known Portuguese architect and winner of the 1992 Pritzker Prize. He studied at the School of Architecture in Porto, from 1949-55, where he also taught for many years as a Professor of Construction. Siza has built work all over the world, including Portugal, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, and South Korea. His work has been published and exhibited widely and he has given numerous lectures in Europe, America, and Japan. He is the winner of the RIBA Gold Medal, the Wolf Prize in Arts, the Alvar Aalto Medal and the Praemium Imperiale of Japan, among many other international honors.



R e v i e w I n S a n M a r t i n P i n a r i o M o n a s t e r y - P a l l a s m a a , C u r t i s , M a y o r o f S a n t i a g o



M a n u e l G a l l e g o G i v e s a T o u r o f h i s P i l g r i m a g e M u s e u m i n S a n t i a g o



W i l l i a m J R C u r t i s a n d C a r l o s S e o a n e



D i s t i n g u i s h e d G u e s t W i l l i a m J R C u r t i s a t A l v a r o S i z a ‘ s B o a N o v a T e a H o u s e



D i s t i n g u i s h e d G u e s t L e c t u r e b y J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a



D i s t i n g u i s h e d G u e s t L e c t u r e b y J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a



L u n c h W i t h A l v a r o S i z a i n S a n t i a g o ‘ s O l d M a r k e t



L u n c h W i t h A l v a r o S i z a i n S a n t i a g o ‘ s O l d M a r k e t



A l v a r o S i z a a n d W i l l i a m J R C u r t i s w i t h S t u d e n t s - S u m m e r 2 0 1 0



D a v i d C h i p p e r f i e l d G i v e s a T o u r o f h i s H o u s e i n G a l i c i a - L u n c h D i s c u s s i o n



A l b e r t o F o y o a n d J a c q u e s G u b l e r a t t h e F i n a l R e v i e w



M a r i a S i e i r a , T a t i a n a B e r g e r , a n d t h e M a y o r o f S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a



J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a w i t h S t u d e n t s o n t h e A n n u a l B o a t T r i p



O s c a r F u e r t e s , J o a q u i m A l m e i d a , P a b l o G a l l e g o , W i l l i a m J R C u r t i s , C a r m e n F a b r e g a t , J u h a n i P a l l a s m a a , T a t i a n a B e r g e r



T R A V E L | S P A I N | P O R T U G A L 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

The Compostela Institute program offers students access to major works of architecture and construction sites, and in this way provides the all-important immediacy of the architectural experience. Students in this program participate in their own “architectural pilgrimage” to important structures from ancient times and influential contemporary buildings by Alvaro Siza, David Chipperfield, Manuel Gallego and others. Students also have the unique opportunity to visit the construction site of Peter Eisenman’s largest project to date, the Cidade da Cultura. These visits to buildings and construction sites are guided by scholars and architects so that students gain both a critical understanding of the design strategies and a first-hand knowledge of the tectonics of building. It is this simultaneous understanding of the theo-retical and the applied in architecture that is the focus of the school.

Below is a list of guided tours organized by Compostela Institute each summer. All tours take place on two evenings per week and on weekends. The program ends with a trip to Porto, Portugal.

1. Braga and Vigo: Works by Miralles, De la Sota, Rossi, Bonell and Gil, Souto de Moura, and Vazquez Consuegra

2. Ribeira and Finisterre: Works by Chipperfield, Gallego, and Portela

3. Coruña: Works by Isozaki, Gallego, Grimshaw, Acebo and Alonso

4. Santiago de Compostela - Tour 1: Public Spaces

5. Santiago de Compostela - Tour 2: The Cathedral and Convents, the Portico de la Gloria

6. Santiago de Compostela - Tour 3: Alvaro Siza in Santiago - Museum of Contemporary Art and The Bonaval Park; School of Journalism

7. Santiago de Compostela - Tour 4: Works by Peter Eisenman and John Hejduk

8. Santiago de Compostela - Tour 5: Works by Grassi, Lopez Cotelo, Gallego

9. Santiago de Compostela - Tour 6: Works by Noguerol and Diez

10. Porto, Portugal - Alvaro Siza in Porto: Leca de Palmeira Swimming Pools, Boa Nova Restaurant, Quinta de Conceicao Swimming Pools, Serralves Museum of Art, School of Architecture, Office of Alvaro Siza, additional works by Fernando Tavora and Eduardo Souto de Moura



T o u r o f V i g o , S p a i n - C a m p u s b y E n r i q u e M i r a l l e s



T o u r o f V i g o , S p a i n - C a m p u s b y E n r i q u e M i r a l l e s - S t u d e n t s 2 0 1 1



N e a r N o i a a n d R i b e i r a - B o a t T o u r



F i n i s t e r r e , S p a i n - C e m e t e r y b y C e s a r P o r t e l a



C o r r u b e d o , S p a i n - S u m m e r H o u s e b y D a v i d C h i p p e r f i e l d - S t u d e n t s t a k e a b r e a k



C o r r u b e d o , S p a i n - S u m m e r H o u s e b y D a v i d C h i p p e r f i e l d



C o r r u b e d o - S u m m e r H o u s e b y D . C h i p p e r f i e l d



N e a r V i g o , S p a i n - M u s e u m o f t h e S e a b y A l d o R o s s i a n d C e s a r P o r t e l a



S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a , S p a i n - G a l i c i a n C e n t e r f o r C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t b y A l v a r o S i z a












S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a , S p a i n - B o n a v a l P a r k b y A l v a r o S i z a a n d I . A g u i r r e



S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a , S p a i n - B o n a v a l P a r k b y A l v a r o S i z a a n d I . A g u i r r e



S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a , S p a i n - S c h o o l o f J o u r n a l i s m b y A l v a r o S i z a



S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a , S p a i n - S c h o o l o f J o u r n a l i s m b y A l v a r o S i z a



S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a , S p a i n - M u l t i f u n c t i o n a l C e n t e r n e a r M o n t e G a i a s b y P. E i s e n m a n



S a n t i a g o d e C o m p o s t e l a , S p a i n - M u l t i f u n c t i o n a l C e n t e r n e a r M o n t e G a i a s b y P. E i s e n m a n



L e c a d e P a l m e i r a , P o r t u g a l - S w i m m i n g P o o l s b y A l v a r o S i z a












M a t o s i n h o s , P o r t u g a l - B o a N o v a R e s t a u r a n t b y A l v a r o S i z a












P o r t o , P o r t u g a l - S e r r a l v e s M u s e u m b y A l v a r o S i z a



P o r t o , P o r t u g a l - S e r r a l v e s M u s e u m b y A l v a r o S i z a



P o r t o , P o r t u g a l - A p a r t m e n t H o u s e o n B o a v i s t a b y A l v a r o S i z a



P o r t o , P o r t u g a l - A p a r t m e n t H o u s e o n B o a v i s t a b y A l v a r o S i z a



P o r t o , P o r t u g a l - O f f i c e o f A l v a r o S i z a - V i e w f r o m t h e R i v e r D o u r o



P o r t o , P o r t u g a l - O f f i c e o f A l v a r o S i z a - V i e w f r o m t h e R i v e r D o u r o



P o r t o , P o r t u g a l - O f f i c e o f A l v a r o S i z a - I n s i d e S i z a ‘ s W o r k R o o m



P o r t o , P o r t u g a l - O f f i c e o f A l v a r o S i z a - I n s i d e S i z a ‘ s W o r k R o o m



P o r t o , P o r t u g a l - O f f i c e o f A l v a r o S i z a - S i z a w i t h C o m p o s t e l a s t u d e n t P a b l o



P o r t o , P o r t u g a l - O f f i c e o f A l v a r o S i z a - S i z a w i t h C o m p o s t e l a s t u d e n t P a b l o



L I F E | F O O D | P L A Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3 E x c e r p t f r o m e s s a y “ C h i p p e r f i e l d o n t h e B e a c h a n d O t h e r C o m p o s t e l a s “ b y M a r i a S i e i r a

One warm breezy summer morning, a couple dozen architecture students and professors from the Compostela Institute summer program travelled to the Galician coast to visit David Chipperfield’s summer house. It was a treat to get inside the house, which on one side perches on a small beach, and on the other squeezes between other houses crowding the tortu-ous old main street. It was also a treat to be hosted by the architect and his family, with plenty of jamón and local fresh cheese, and to linger at the table musing about the strange exaggerated program of a summer house: the usual trappings of our busy lives are absent, we parcel out a bit of office time to keep our regular lives elsewhere going, but mostly we are occupied with new concerns, such as how to keep sand out of the house (in the case of Chipperfield’s house a shower is matter-of-factly introduced between the entrance from the beach and the rest of the house).

The reference for the title of this essay is Robert Wilson’s operatic work «Einstein on the Beach», his collaboration with the composer Philip Glass that resulted in a radical new kind of opera. Wilson and Glass set out to place a major historical figure in quotidian contexts so that the opera becomes a poetic portrayal of a personage rather than the more typical grandiose historical narrative. Similarly, Compostela Institute is a program founded with the purpose of offering an alternative architectural experience to the contemporary architec-ture studio. The faculty, teaching in Europe and North America during the rest of the year, spend the summers getting the students in the program to slow down and slowing down with them; to produce architecture, yes, but to delay the grand gesture in favor of the accumulated moments arising out of quotidian, less abstract, more directly experienced environ-ments.

Chipperfield’s summer house and other sites visited (as well as the students and faculty themselves...) are literally on the beach, and this leisure context is an important component of the program. The Galician cultural context—the beaches, the coasts, the food, the holiday processions and street festivals - act as a kind of priming device for the pedagogical goals of the program.

Galicia is the distant corner of the Iberian Peninsula, until recently with limited transportation access and visitors, save for the committed pilgrims arriving at the tomb of St. James in Santiago’s cathedral. And, going further back, Galicia is the home of Finisterre, the finis terrae, the pre-Columbian end of the earth. In part because of its distant location and in part because of Galicia’s particular socio-political history, Santiago and its region doesn’t just offer museumized Galician culture, but rather a living, thriving lifestyle with deep connec-tions to the past. The preparation and consumption of food (and in particular of the incredibly rich array of seafood that comes out of the Galician bays) is equally ceremonial for the rural peasant as it is for the urban intellectual. In both cases primitive means continue to be used - large cauldrons of boiling water, dry pine needles smoldering under a grill—and not out of some sense of returning to authenticity in a modern world as it might be the case in the United States (the organic farm movement, for example), but simply because, well, the food prepared in this way is delicious.

I have had more than one young architecture student in New York tell me that for all the effort that goes into the arrangement of actual, physical space in the course of a professional architecture program, the contemporary environment of young people today revolves around the luminous screen of a computer device. If Compostela Institute has as a goal getting these young architects to engage architecture in a more direct, physical way, what better context for this pedagogy than a culture in which taking pleasure in a meal and a place is a daily habit. By the time students and faculty arrived at Chipperfield’s summer house, they had stopped being mere sightseers and had grown accustomed to their bodies and minds at rest....


L I F E | F O O D | P L A Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

I n f o r m a l L u n c h - D i s c u s s i o n a t D a v i d C h i p p e r f i e l d ‘s H o u s e i n C o r r u b e d o


L I F E | F O O D | P L A Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

F e a s t f o r A l v a r o S i z a i n S a n t i a g o ‘s O l d M a r k e t - A l b e r t o , O l e g , C h a n g , O l g a , C o l i n , B r y a n


L I F E | F O O D | P L A Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

F e a s t f o r A l v a r o S i z a i n S a n t i a g o ‘ s O l d M a r k e t - M a r e k , S a s h a , S i z a , A n n a


L I F E | F O O D | P L A Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

D i n n e r i n t h e G a r d e n - S a n t i a g o C e n t e r - T a t i a n a , W i l l i a m , E d i t e , P a b l o , J u h a n i , A l b e r t o


L I F E | F O O D | P L A Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

B o a t T r i p


L I F E | F O O D | P L A Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

B o a t T r i p


L I F E | F O O D | P L A Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

B o a t T r i p - J u h a n i , T a t i a n a , A l z b e t a , R a b a b , M a g d a


L I F E | F O O D | P L A Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

B o a t T r i p - V i c t o r i a , T a t i a n a , J a c k i e , B e n a n , J o r d a n


L I F E | F O O D | P L A Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

O s c a r , L u c i a , a n d t h e A s s i s t a n t P r o f e s s o r s


L I F E | F O O D | P L A Y 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3

A s s i s t a n t P r o f e s s o r s - H e n r y , W a l t e r , a n d S a s h a



A D D E N D U M | L I S T O F S T U D E N T S | S P E A K E R S | L E C T U R E S | P O S T E R S 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 3


Students 2010 : Students 2011: Students 2012: Alfredo Pimentel US Adryanne Quenneville US Alejandro Leal Mexico Ana Gonzalez Granja Spain Robert Burgess US Alzbeta Bruhova Czechoslovakia Anna Kulik Russia Camille Milou US Anh Tu Tran VietnamBruno Neto Portugal David Deitch US Benan Sahin TurkeyBryan Kistner Mexico/US Filipo Puleo Italy Donald Barany USColin Booth US Holly Arnold US Geng Xinxin ChinaChung Z. Zhao US Jackie Tugman US Hu Rong ChinaDanilo Marini US Jin Park US Jamie Edindjiklian USElizabeth Kay US Laura Schneider Germany Javier Solis Mexico Grant Scott US Levi Tofias US Jordan Fust USJennifer Caras France Michael DeValle US Rabab Kazem KuwaitKathryn Hovis US Sean Owen US Magda Jankowska Poland/USLauren Fallisi US Tayssir Takieddine Syria Ewelina Olechowska Poland/US Marek Kundrata Hungary Timoteo D’Alessandro Italy Pablo Lopez Prol SpainMario Somonte Spain Toan D.B.Nguyen Vietnam Scott Brown USMark Rego Portugal Trevor Hughes US Scott Woodward USMichael Deng Lin US Vladimir Gusev Russia Yuki He ChinaOlga Prokopenko Russia Zane Bell US Shih-Ning Chou Taiwan/US Ravie Bath US Steve Ramirez Columbia/UsReed Harmon US Tanya Zimmerli USRobin Willcox US Tate Sumner USKelly Shaw US Veronica Velasquez Columbia/USZachary Briggs US Xian Yu Yang China Yingxia Lai (deLyn) China/US Yishan Qin China


Guest Lecturers: Lecturers: Faculty and Administration: Alvaro Siza Fernando Agrasar Carlos SeoaneWilliam J.R.Curtis Felipe Criado Tatiana BergerJuhani Pallasmaa Elias Cueto Alberto FoyoDavid Chipperfield Jose Fernandez Salas Pablo GallegoFulvio Irace Inaki Leite Maria SieiraJacques Gubler Fernandez Lopez Alsina Oscar FuertesHua Li Maria Lopez Sandez Lucia Buceta Andrew Cohen Carlos Otero Jackie TugmanVito Acconci Jose Otero Pombo Carmen Fabregat Manuel Gallego Alfonso Perez-Mendez Tono Mejuta Carlos Quintans Edite RosaGuest Critics: Felix Salinas

Gerardo Conde Roa Sponsors:Angel CurrasXerardo Estevez Concelho de Santiago Martin Fdz.Prado Universidade de Santiago de Compostela William JR Curtis The Swiss Embassy in SpainJuhani Pallasmaa Fundacion Compostela ArquitecturaFulvio Irace Fundacion Paidea Jacques GublerEdite RosaJoaquim AlmeidaFernando AgrasarAntonio Maroño Oleg DrozdovSara Murado


F o u n d i n g F a c u l t y:

Carlos Seoane Mr.Seoane has a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Santiago, 1987 and a Master’s degree from Columbia University, 1991. He has also com-pleted post-graduate studies at the Escola das Artes e Design, in Porto. Since 1996, he is Associate Professor of Construction at Coruña University School of Archi-tecture. In the United States, he worked with R. Viñoly Architects. In 1993, he moved to Porto to collaborate with A. Siza. He opened his own studio in 1997 and since then has also collaborated with D. Chipperfield and with Eisenman Architects. He has received the CGAC Award 2002, Association of Architects award for best rehabilitation project in 2001-2, Juana de Vega Award, 2010 for the best Galician House.

Tatiana Berger Ms.Berger has a B.A. in Architecture from UC Berkeley and a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Princeton University. She has practiced architecture for 15 years in the U.S., Russia, Austria, and Portugal. She worked as project manager for ILF Engineers on the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and for Baumschlager and Eberle on residential projects and international competitions. From 1997-2004 she collaborated with Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza on the design and construction of multiple projects in Iberia, including the reconstruction of the historic Chiado district in Lisbon and the new public library in Viana de Castelo. Since 2008, she is a professor at the Boston Architectural College, Roger Williams University, and the Wentworth Institute of Technology. Alberto Foyo Alberto Foyo Studied architecture in Madrid,Spain and the University of Oregon, USA. He collaborated with the Austrian architect Dr. Roland Rainer developing low rise-high density residential enclaves and later opened his practice in NYC. His projects include residential developments in Spain and Florida, a master plan for Kiev, an agroforestry & permaculture center in the Amazon basin and residences in the New York region. He is involved as professor, guest critic, and lecturer in Europe, China, and America. He teaches at the School of Architecture, City College and at Columbia University in New York.

Oscar Fuertes Oscar Fuertes studied architecture in Coruña, Spain and the Accademia della Architettura di Mendrisio, Switzerland. He has a master’s degree from Coruña Univer-sity. He is a member of the Spanish Commission for the exhibition Architetti Ticinesse nel Mondo. He collaborates with CSA and with the COAG - Galician Associa-tion of Architects- on the European project »Dorna”.

Pablo Gallego Picard Architect, photographer and filmmaker. Co-director of the art&architecture magazine O-monografías. Graduated from Madrid Architecture Polytechnics School. He has collaborated with Ábalos &Herreros, D.Chipperfield Architects, M. Gallego, Stan Allen and Tuñon and Mansilla. He has a Master of Science from the GSAPP, Columbia University NY, is recipient of the William Kinne Fellows Award in 2000 and the Europan 8 first prize at Coimbra, Portugal. His practice has work in London, New York and Galicia, Spain, and has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, XXX Pontevedra Art Biennale, CGAC in S.Compostela and Arquerias Nuevos Ministerios, Madrid.

Maria Sieira Mrs.Sieira coordinates the Housing Studio and the Architecture History/Theory sequence in the graduate program at Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture. She teaches architecture design studios that focus on sustainable urban projects and seminars on film and on installation art. She is a registered architect in New York State and in 2007 founded Xoguete Architecture, a critical practice firm that provides architectural services and is engaged in design research. She worked on the Cidade da Cultura, in Santiago de Compostela, while at Eisenman Architects, NY


C o n v e r s a t i o n s w i t h S t u d e n t s:

1. Alvaro Siza - Conversation with Students 6. Round-table Discussion with A.Foyo, J.Pallasmaa, C.Seoane (Auditorium at the School of Journalism) (San Martin Pinario Lecture Hall, Santiago de Compostela) 2. Alvaro Siza - Lunch with Students 7. Discussion with Hua Li (Town Market in Santiago de Compostela) (San Martin Pinario, Santiago de Compostela) 3. David Chipperfield - Conversation with Students 8. Juhani Pallasmaa in Conversation with Students (House in Corrubedo, Spain) (Plaza Quintana, Santiago de Compostela) 4. William JR Curtis - Conversation with Students 9. Presentation of Work by Faculty and Discussion (Fonseca Residence Hall, South Campus of the University) (Residence Hall) 5. Juhani Pallasmaa - Conversation with Students 10. T.Berger Conversations with Students in Porto (Cafe on Praca Fonseca, Santiago de Compostela) (Boa Nova Tea House and Serralves Museum)

S e l e c t e d L e c t u r e s a n d S e m i n a r s:

On Santiago de Compostela: On Sustainability, Construction and Tectonics: 1. Santiago and Its Urban Development - Luis Daida 1. New Systems of Construction - Carlos Quintans 2. Santiago - A Space Through Different Ideologies - F. Agrasar 2. Void and Construction - Carlos Quintans 3. Santiago: The Contemporary City - Fernando Agrasar 3. New Technologies in Construction: Three Lectures - Carlos Quintans4. Cloisters and Their Meaning - A.Goy Diz 4. Sustainable Architecture - Alberto Foyo5. Santiago: The History of the City - Lopez Alsina 5. The Tectonics of Design and Essays in Tectonic Studies - A.Perez-Mendez6. Santiago and Its Materiality - F.Salinas 6. Architecture and Its Materiality: Stone - Coira7. The City of Culture by Peter Eisenman - Maria Sieira 7. Stone Work - F.Salinas 8. An Artist’s Interventions in the City - Fernando Agrasar 8. Systems of Architectural Design - Inaki Leite

On Landscape: On Light, Environment, and Human Perception: 1. The St.James Pilgrimage Route - C.S.Carretero 1. Light in The Architecture of Le Corbusier - William JR Curtis 2. Galicia: Landscape and Archeology - C.Otero and F.Criado 2. Platforms, Terraces and Ramps in Ancient and Modern Architecture: 3. Memory, Identity and Landscape - Pablo Gallego Picard Fundamentals of Perception - William JR Curtis 4. Landscape and the New Modern - Tatiana Berger 3. Abstraction and Light: Photographs and Drawings - William JR Curtis 5. Landscape and Ideology - López Sandez 4. Atmospheres - Juhani Pallasmaa 5. Art and Architecture - Juhani PallasmaaOn Design and Drawing: 6. Platform and Horizon - William JR Curtis 1. The Museum at Ibere Camargo and Its Design Process - Alvaro Siza (followed by a conversation with students at the town market) On Architecture in Europe and Asia: 2. The Design of a Summer House in Corrubedo - David Chipperfield 1. Face City - Fulvio Irace 3. Sectional Thinking - Andrew Cohen 2. Modern Architecture in China - Hua Li 4. Instruments of Design - Drawings for the Church at Marco - Edite Rosa 3. Nationalism and Internationalism in Modern Swiss Arch. - J.Gubler


architecture summer program july 2013 spainwww.cainstitute.es e-mail: [email protected]

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Part 1 COMPOSTELA INSTITUTE 2010-2013

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