Project:
SASA 2010 - The Inaugural Scottish Architecture Students Assembly
Workshops
Community Participation
Date:
August 2010
Collaborators:
Collective Architecture
Page/Park Architects
Gordon Murray Architects
Central Station
Mono Cafe/Bar
About:
What is SASA?
Scottish Architecture Students Assembly (SASA) was founded by Pidgin Perfect in 2010.
SASA is a group which seeks to establish an annual festival of architecture and design between students from the five schools of architecture in Scotland. SASA is based on the same working principles of the ‘European Architecture Students Assembly’, more commonly known as EASA, and is a response to the current efforts within architectural education to restore the self-actuated student attitude most commonly proliferated in the 1970’s by the likes of Cedric Price, Geoff Haslam and Richard Murphy.
Through the hosting a series of events consisting of guest lectures, interactive agit-props and design workshops, SASA hope to show the merit and importance in bringing students from different schools and backgrounds together. Proving that collective thought creates a more powerful response.
SASA 2010 took place in the East End of Glasgow city centre on August 20th, 2010. SASA 2010 was an all day event organised by Pidgin Perfect that consisted of seminar, cinema and workshop. In attendance were 30 students of architecture from all over Scotland who debated, discussed and designed alongside local artists, architects and representatives of local organisations.
Focusing on the 2009 closure of Paddy’s Market, an historic flea market in Glasgow city centre, the event investigated how Glasgow defines its identity. SASA 2010 began at the office of Collective Architecture where Jude Barber led an interesting seminar that dealt with issues of collective identity and the importance of self-actuated projects.
The event then moved to The Barras, a market in the East End of the city, where participants and memebers of the public were invited to take part in Pop Up Cinéma Matinée, an event where three local artist’s present original short films that dealt with community, hertiage and loss. The intention of the cinema event was to provide participants with the necessary information required to undertake that afternoons design led workshop and allow a discussion to take place outwith the constraints of architecture.
Remaining in the east of the city, the SASA 2010 finally travelled to Mono Café/Bar where Pidgin Perfect rolled out the design led workshop, entitled ‘Brand Vs. Ethos’. With the aim to investigate the identity crisis which Glasgow has suffered as it moves towards the status of a Global City, ‘Brand Vs. Ethos’ asked participants to create propoganda that challenged the current marketing of the city as a commodity. The workshop culminated in a multi-media 'Flash Mob' exhibition with local artists and architects in attendance.
A follow up exhibition entitled ‘Identity Crisis' was curated by Pidgin Perfect as a record of the days events and the work produced during the intense three hour period of the the inaugural SASA workshop. The exhibition took place at The Barras Centre which sits within The Barras area of Glasgows East End, it ran for one week and was attened by local traders, members of the public, local artists and architects.
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